James Middlebrook struck 70 as Northamptonshire moved themselves into a winning position on the third day of their Division Two match against Glamorgan

12-Apr-2013
ScorecardJames Middlebrook struck 70 as Northamptonshire moved themselves into a winning position on the third day of their Division Two match against Glamorgan. Middlebrook top-scored with Northamptonshire making 292 all out in their first innings – opening up an overall lead of 158.In their second innings, Glamorgan were reduced to 71 for 4 before finally ending the day still 62 behind.Northamptonshire had resumed their first innings on 145 for 5, a lead of 11 after only 17.1 overs were possible on the second day. Andrew Hall and Middlebrook batted for the first 90 minutes of the third morning taking the visitors past 200 to register a batting point. But the sixth-wicket pair, who added 60, were separated when Hall drove Mike Reed straight to Ben Wright at point.Northamptonshire had reached 218 for 6 by lunch – a lead of 84 – boosted by a pull for six over backward square by Middlebrook off Graham Wagg. Middlebrook cleared the rope again after lunch striking slow left armer Dean Cosker for his second six as he moved into the 40s.Glamorgan took the second new ball and Michael Hogan broke through almost immediately to have David Murphy caught at slip. After a rain break Wagg claimed the last three wickets in the space of 13 balls as Northamptonshire were dismissed for 292. First he bowled David Willey before trapping Stephen Crook lbw for eight and then having Middlebrook at slip by Allenby.Glamorgan openers Ben Wright and Will Bragg survived until tea. Bragg batted with Cosker as a runner after not fielding for most of the day. The openers batted well until both perished in the space of only five balls.Bragg was trapped leg-before to Willey before Wright edged a rising Hall delivery to Trent Copeland at first slip. And former Australian international Marcus North failed for a second time, edging a good Crook delivery behind as Glamorgan slumped to 69 for 3.Stewart Walters then fell to a sharp catch by wicket-keeper Murphy standing up to Hall, meaning four wickets had fallen for the addition of only nine runs. Jim Allenby and Murray Goodwin, who scored 3 from 41 balls, took Glamorgan to the close without any further scares.

Yorkshire followers have been spoilt of late. Not only have they been winning matches, but they’ve been winning them in style, with both bat and ball

Les Smith at Headlingley08-May-2013Somerset 92 for 1 (Trescothick 53) trail Yorkshire 505 for 9 dec (Rashid 180, Ballance 107, Trego 4-107) by 413 runs
ScorecardAdil Rashid lifted Yorkshire over 500 for consecutive innings•Getty Images

Yorkshire followers have been spoilt of late. Not only have they been winning matches, but they’ve been winning them in style, with both bat and ball. On this occasion they were given more typical Yorkshire virtues: grit and pragmatism. They still saw another total of over 500, but there was less flair about its accumulation than in the victories against Durham and Derbyshire.The start of play was delayed for an hour by bad light and a little rain. Adil Rashid was 120 not out overnight, and he was to stay at the wicket until Andrew Gale declared at the fall of the ninth wicket. He was patient – he batted for exactly seven hours – but when the opportunity arose he was ruthless through the off side, and his wristy flicks off his pads were easy on the eye.He went past his previous highest score of 157 without any alarms, and when he was finally out for 180 he had reached exactly 4000 first-class runs. Rashid has reportedly settled his grievances with Yorkshire having gone public with a view that he has lacked support from the club, and this innings might launch his season.Rashid’s principal allies were Nos. 9 and 10, Rich Pyrah and Jack Brooks. Pyrah took guard shortly before lunch, and announced his intentions immediately after by taking four boundaries off a Peter Trego over: a leg glance, two sumptuous extra cover drives, and a streaky one through the slips. When he stepped away to leg and tried to chop behind square, losing his off stump, he had 55 of a stand of 79.Brooks has one first-class 50 and this innings suggested that it might not be his last. Two leg side sixes off successive balls by left-arm spinner Jack Leach took Yorkshire past 500 in successive innings.The main burden of the Somerset bowling was shouldered by Trego and Steve Kirby. Both conceded over a hundred runs, but at reasonable economy rates and they shared seven of the nine wickets to fall.At the start of the Somerset innings Tim Bresnan, who was being given the once over by Test selector James Whitaker, bowled with real menace, especially to Marcus Trescothick whose bottom hand he hit hard with a ball that rose sharply from a length. Both openers survived confident appeals for caught behind; Nick Compton off Brooks and Trescothick off Pyrah. Brooks in particular was, to put it mildly, very disappointed, and umpire George Sharp wisely had a quiet word with him at the end of the over.There was a lot of playing and missing as the ball moved in the air and occasionally off the pitch, but Compton and Trescothick played with the composure you would expect of Test opening batsmen. Trescothick reached his fifty off 114 balls with 10 boundaries, but was trapped next ball by Brooks, bowling from what is clearly his favoured Kirkstall Lane End.The rain promised never materialised, but the forecast for the third day is worse and if time is lost a positive result might be difficult to achieve although the way Yorkshire have played in recent weeks you can never tell.

The legspinner Fawad Ahmed appears likely to join Australia’s Ashes campaign after being rushed into the Australia A squad for the remainder of its tour of England and Ireland

Brydon Coverdale06-Jun-2013The legspinner Fawad Ahmed appears likely to join Australia’s Ashes campaign after being rushed into the Australia A squad for the remainder of its tour of England and Ireland. On Wednesday night, legislation was passed by the parliament’s House of Representatives which cleared the way for Ahmed’s Australian citizenship to be fast-tracked and although the bill must still be approved by the Senate, that appears to be a formality.That should mean Ahmed can obtain an Australian passport well in advance of the first Ashes Test, which starts at Trent Bridge on July 10. The Australia A matches against Ireland from June 14 to 17 and Gloucestershire from June 21 to 23 now loom as a genuine Ashes audition for Ahmed, who will join the incumbent Test spinner Nathan Lyon and the promising young left-armer Ashton Agar as the slow bowlers in the Australia A outfit.”It is a dream come true, after a long struggle and being through a really tough time,” Ahmed said in Melbourne on Thursday. “I am very happy now and it is a great opportunity for me to prove myself at that level … It’s an opportunity for me to give something to this country because this nation has given me a lot. They loved me, give me an honour and give me respect. This is now the time that I can give back to them and serve my nation.”The selectors had originally planned to send Ahmed on the Australia A tour of South Africa in July but that was when they thought he would be ineligible for a national call-up until the final Ashes Test. The expected passing of the parliamentary bill, which eases the residency requirements for certain individuals in exceptional circumstances where their becoming a citizen could benefit Australia, has encouraged the selectors to give Ahmed some time in England ahead of the Ashes.Under the ICC’s player eligibility criteria, Ahmed would be unavailable for Australian selection until August 18 unless granted a passport before then. The criteria do not apply to A-teams. When Australia’s selectors named their Ashes squad in April they chose 16 players and left one further space unfilled, which at the time was seen as an indication that Ahmed would come under consideration if he became eligible.”We are pleased to be able to provide emerging cricketers with an opportunity to show their abilities,” John Inverarity, the national selector, said. “Fawad is a spin bowler of interest and we look forward to seeing how he performs for Australia A.”Ahmed, 31, played ten first-class matches in Pakistan before fleeing to Australia in 2010 as an asylum seeker, saying his life had been threatened in Pakistan. Initially his claim was rejected but after Cricket Australia weighed in to support him, Ahmed was granted permanent residency last year and subsequently made his Melbourne Renegades debut in the Big Bash League and earned a call-up to the Victoria state side in February.”It’s just like a dream with open eyes, because I never expected something like this to happen after three and a half years,” Ahmed said of progressing to Australia A selection. “There was a question on my life [in Pakistan], there were people raising their fingers on my life, so I was just surviving. I just came here for a better life, and I was just thinking to survive here and be like other people who came here as immigrants. This is something amazing, it is like a dream. Even I couldn’t imagine this. This is something unbelievable for me.”In three Sheffield Shield matches towards the end of the summer, Ahmed collected 16 wickets at 28.37 and impressed his state captain Cameron White so much that White declared Ahmed “one of the better legspinners – if not the best – I’ve seen in first-class cricket outside [Stuart] MacGill and [Shane] Warne.”

George Bailey, Australia’s stand-in captain for the Champions Trophy, has admitted that Australia are low on confidence, reasoning that the fate of the Ashes hinges on the result of the first couple of Tests

Nagraj Gollapudi at The Oval18-Jun-2013George Bailey, Australia’s stand-in captain for the Champions Trophy, has admitted that Australia are low on confidence, reasoning that the fate of the Ashes hinges on the result of the first couple of Tests. Australia, the defending champions, failed to make the semi-finals of what is supposed to be the last edition of the Champions Trophy, after they lost to Sri Lanka on Monday at The Oval narrowly by 20 runs, finishing at the bottom of Group B behind England, Sri Lanka and New Zealand.It has been a demoralising few weeks for Australia, starting with the loss of their regular captain Michael Clarke to back injury, following by the David Warner controversy after the player admitted to being involved physical altercation with England batsman Joe Root in a pub in Birmingham last week before culminating in their exit from the tournament on Monday. With the first Investec Ashes Test commencing on July 10 at Trent Bridge, Australia could not be in a worse state of mind.However, Bailey felt that the switch in the formats, the change of the ball, the infusion of fresh legs and the probable return of Clarke in to the squad could reinvigorate an Australia and arrest the downward spiral.”There is probably not a great deal of confidence there,” Bailey said at the Oval. “But it’s just a very different mindset, I think, going from a one‑day tournament to a Test tournament. I don’t think it’s mattered where sides have been ranked going forward or in the past.”The Ashes just tends to bring out something special in both sides. Whatever can be written and said leading up into those games, but until that first Test and the result of that first Test, I think that will dictate how the summer plays out. I think there is a huge importance in the results of the first couple of Tests.”Whatever Bailey’s thoughts, the worries will persist. The biggest concern would be the slump the top-order pair of Shane Watson and Phillip Hughes. Watson had an aggregate of 34 runs while Hughes finished with 43 runs in the three Champions Trophy matches. Add to that the failure of Warner, who managed nine runs in the match against England and successive ducks in two warm-up matches, and the fragility of the Australian batting order becomes that much prominent.There were only four half-centuries by Australia’s batsmen including one from the James Faulkner, a bowling allrounder. Bailey and Adam Voges, the best performing batsmen, are not part of the Ashes plans. Australia, Bailey pointed out, would need to forget the Champions Trophy as soon as possible to move into the Ashes with a positive frame of mind.”All of these guys will have to put this tournament behind them whether they’ve scored runs or not, and just focus on going forward,” Bailey said. “That’s no different for an Australian player to any other international player. Everyone has form slumps, everyone has their ups and downs. As a team, I think there is a really big challenge that’s going to be ahead of them in the next couple of months. I think what Australia have done this time is they’ve got a really good preparation.”I think a couple of the guys, the batters from this group, will maybe even join up and play the Australia A game that’s due to start later this week. So, there are going to be plenty of opportunities for those guys to get some match practice in. Plenty of opportunity to get lots of practice against the Dukes balls in.”What would help the Australians immensely would be the return of Clarke who, Bailey reckoned, was likely to return for the first Ashes warm-up match, starting next Thursday, against Somerset in Taunton. According to Bailey even though it might seem Australia had been mortally wounded in the Champions Trophy there were still some positives to take forward. One reason for encouragement was Faulkner, the left-arm fast bowler, who might have just had three wickets, but his rich mix of variations could make him the surprise weapon during the Ashes.”Faulkner has been really impressive. I think it’s been good to have a lot of guys over here playing a lot of cricket in the lead‑up to the Ashes. So it’s not necessarily just on the Champions Trophy group, but a lot of guys that have been playing county cricket,” Bailey said. “Obviously, the Australia A groups are over here. The Champions Trophy boys that have been here for a number of weeks have been getting used to the conditions, different color ball and different format. But all of that plays a part in getting settled in. So I think all of those things will take some positives out of.”

Australia’s captain Michael Clarke was far from alone in fuming as the umpires made the unilateral decision to take the teams off for bad light

The Report by Daniel Brettig04-Aug-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDavid Warner gave Australia impetus at the start of their second innings•Getty Images

Australia’s captain Michael Clarke was far from alone in fuming as the umpires made the unilateral decision to take the teams off for bad light with the tourists leading by 331 runs on the fourth evening of the Old Trafford Test. To widespread incredulity around the ground and the world, Tony Hill and Marais Erasmus judged conditions to be unsafe for play, maintaining the officials’ unedifyingly scene-stealing role in this series.Clarke’s disgust was as clear as the barely concealed relief of his opposite number Alastair Cook, for England need only a draw in Manchester to retain the Ashes. Rain arrived subsequently to end the day, but the umpires’ enthusiasm to get the combatants off the ground cost 30 minutes of possible play, a figure that may prove critical should the skies clear enough on the final day to allow a full allotment of overs.Speaking to the host broadcasters, Hill and Erasmus stated that they had deemed conditions unsafe, even though Australia had been motoring along at close to six runs per over. They also revealed they had asked Cook to bowl spin, a request England’s captain understandably refused given the series scenario. Clarke remonstrated at length when asked to depart, but under current ICC regulations had no say in the matter.No side has chased more than 294 to win in the fourth innings at the ground, but Clarke appeared to be pushing towards a lead of around 350 with more than 30 overs still scheduled to be bowled on the fourth evening. The hosts had reduced Australia’s chances of forcing the victory they need to keep the series alive with doughty lower order batting on the fourth morning, but were then conspicuous in their time-wasting tactics in the field.Matt Prior and Stuart Broad put together a critical stand of 58 that averted the follow-on, before the last man James Anderson aided England’s wicketkeeper in another pesky union that pared back the tourists’ first innings advantage to 159. From there England played the situation with pragmatism but little imagination, letting their over rate sag and then being happy when Hill and Erasmus made a ruling that left spectators almost as nonplussed as Clarke himself.A series of cameos by Chris Rogers, David Warner, Usman Khawaja, Shane Watson and Steve Smith had kept Australia’s runs ticking over, though a wicket fell every time they threatened to go from a canter to a charge. Watson’s absence at the top of the order reflected his lack of batting confidence in the first innings, but also allowed Warner the chance to make a decent contribution to the match after his brief and less than illustrious visit to the middle on the second day.Rogers appeared fluent again but sacrificed his wicket to an attempted ODI dab towards third man, resulting only in an edge off Broad, well held by Prior. Warner played with good sense after lunch, finding gaps on the offside and behind square leg, though England felt they had him snicking a Broad bouncer behind. A referral was used, but amid scant evidence to overturn the original decision Warner stayed, leading to a petulant reaction by Cook’s men.Eventually Warner would fall, hooking into the hands of his Birmingham Walkabout target Joe Root at deep square leg. Khawaja played neatly until being bowled around his legs by a Swann delivery that drifted and spun, Watson made his usual start before upper cutting to third man, and Smith unfurled a pair of handsome lofted straight drives before falling victim to a run out as Clarke forgot to run the first one hard.Broad and Prior resumed in the morning with a simple goal – avoid the follow-on and then let a bleak weather forecast conspire with them to thwart Australia. Clarke opened up with a weary-looking Ryan Harris, his usual vim sapped by the previous day. Prior and Broad seemed wise to this and attacked, while at the other end Broad kept Nathan Lyon out.Runs accrued quickly, to a combination of decent shots and fortunate edges, the vacant third slip region getting particular attention. Australia’s lead was quickly diminished, and with a slashing Broad drive off Harris the follow-on was saved. Now sensing his primary task had been achieved, Broad had no qualms about turning on his heels to the pavilion after Lyon procured the thinnest of edges through to Brad Haddin.Prior continued to attack and was dropped at shortish midwicket by a lunging Smith from Lyon. Graeme Swann did not last long, also walking after doing well to inside edge a searing delivery in Siddle’s first over of the morning, but Prior and Anderson then did their best to prolong England’s innings and thus reduce the time available for Australia.This resulted in some curious shot choices and equally odd field settings, the crowd growing restless as Prior farmed the strike and Anderson looked safe enough against the few deliveries he did have to face. Drinks arrived after 67 runs had been added for the loss of two wickets – a ledger most favourable to England.Prior did not last too much longer, skying Siddle to hand him a deserved fourth wicket. From there Cook’s team would take on a decidedly defensive if not outright cynical posture, until Hill and Erasmus joined them in reducing the chances of an outright result.

Kumar Sangakkara’s ravishing international form continued into the second match of the Super Fours provincial Twenty20 tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Aug-2013
Scorecard
Kumar Sangakkara continued to be in top form, smashing 49 off 35•AFP

Kumar Sangakkara’s ravishing international form continued into the second match of the Super Fours provincial Twenty20 tournament, as the Kandurata Maroons overcame the Ruhuna Reds by 13 runs. Sangakkara’s 49 from 35 drove Kandurata’s innings during the middle overs, before cameos from captain Lahiru Thirimanne and Nuwan Kulasekara lifted the total to 159 for 8. In reply, Yashodha Lanka and Angelo Perera embarked on innings that attempted to set their side back on course after early losses, but neither could muster a knock of enough substance to force a win.Shehan Jayasuriya was starved of the strike while Upul Tharanga steered the Kandurata innings with a pair of off-side boundaries in the first three overs, and before Jayasuriya could kick his own innings into gear, he was run out for three.Sangakkara then came to the crease, and if there were any thoughts that a lower-profile match would have dulled his hunger, Sangakkara lofted his third ball over cover, and did not allow his scoring rate to dip thereafter. A spate of singles followed that early boundary, as Tharanga struck two sixes off spin and then got out at the other end, but Sangakkara soon freed his arms as well, taking 14 runs off Kaushalya Weeraratne’s 10th over, and found regular boundaries off the other bowlers as well.He fell in the 15th over, top edging Dilruwan Perera as he attempted to slog-sweep against the turn, but his demise brought Thirimanne, who played the sort of innings that might encourage the national selectors that he can be persevered with in the shortest format. Thirimanne struck two fours – inside-out over cover and behind point – and a slog-swept six in his 14-ball 25. Kulasekara turned aggressor after Thirimanne fell, and took Kandurata to what was a daunting total on a slow track.Tillakaratne Dilshan hit two boundaries off Kulasekara in the first over of Ruhuna’s chase, but he was soon out nicking behind, and the struggling Kusal Perera handled domestic bowlers no better than he has played international attacks in the past two months. Two more quick wickets united Angelo Perera and Lanka, but their 41-run stand only promised revival instead of producing it. Some hard hitting at the death from Dilruwan Perera made the end result appear closer than the match had been.

T&T Red Steel’s star-studded batting line-up let them down badly, paving the way for Guyana Amazon Warriors to enter the final of the first Caribbean Premier League with a seven-wicket win.

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Aug-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsTillakaratne Dilshan finished with figures of 2 for 14 off four overs and scored 39•Getty Images

Given that they made the semi-finals on the back of three successive wins, the Trinidad & Tobago Red Steels would have backed themselves to qualify for the final of another T20 competition. Their star-studded batting line-up, however, let them down badly, paving the way for Guyana Amazon Warriors to enter the final of the first Caribbean Premier League.Guyana chose to bowl first and opened with Krishmar Santokie and Tillarakaratne Dilshan. The pair were immediately effective – Dilshan dismissed Kevin O’Brien in the second over, while Santokie’s slower delivery had Mahela Jayawardene lob a simple catch to Ramnaresh Sarwan at cover.Having softened T&T up, Sarwan, the Guyana captain, then brought two of his most experienced bowlers into the attack. Lasith Malinga and Sunil Narine came on for just one over each but further stifled the struggling batsmen, conceding only six runs between them. The pressure got to Ross Taylor, who fell trying to attempt a slog over deep midwicket.The misery continued for T&T and they found themselves at 32 for 5 in the ninth over and they slid to 56 for 6 before a crucial 45-run seventh-wicket partnership between Dwayne Bravo and Kevon Cooper brought some semblance of respectability back into the innings. Their stand also managed to lift the run rate and take the score past 100. The end of T&T’s innings, however, seemed to mirror the start. Cooper was out at the end of the 18th over for a 17-ball 27. Sulieman Benn departed in the next over for a duck and Malinga, bowling the last over of the match, dismissed Bravo and Fidel Edwards off successive deliveries to wrap-up the innings for 103.In spite of the early wicket of Lendl Simmons, Guyana were hardly troubled in the chase. Tillakaratne Dilshan, having finished with bowling figures of 2 for 14, anchored the Guyana reply with a 29-ball 39, which included three fours and a six. T&T’s bowlers did manage to take two more wickets but it hardly improved their chances, as Guyana eased past the target with 22 balls to spare.

Matt Coles finished with match figures of 10 for 154 as Hampshire crushed Essex by an innings and 31 runs soon after lunch on the third day at the Ageas Bowl

26-Sep-2013
ScorecardMatt Coles collected the first ten-wicket haul of his first-class career•PA Photos

Matt Coles finished with match figures of 10 for 154 as Hampshire crushed Essex by an innings and 31 runs soon after lunch on the third day at the Ageas Bowl. Pace bowler Coles, on loan from Kent and now a free agent, took 4 for 83 in the Essex second innings to add to his 6 for 71 in the first as Essex, without several key players, lost all their batsmen in fewer than 43 overs.The batting strip, so bland all summer, sparked to life in the overcast conditions and left-arm pace bowler James Tomlinson was as destructive as Coles, taking 4 for 63, as Essex revealed little determination to make Hampshire bat a second time.Following-on 249 behind, Essex were all out for 218 and it would have been less but for a typical big-hitting cameo from Graham Napier of 53 in a 60-ball innings which included two sixes off Coles before the inevitable conclusion.Essex went into the match without David Masters, Ravi Bopara and Reece Topley, who were all rested, Owais Shah who had retired and Ryan ten Doeschate, away playing in the Champions League. In addition, their captain James Foster allowed Ben Foakes to replace him behind the stumps. All this when Essex needed to gain maximum points to snatch the runners-up spot ahead of Northamptonshire.Resuming the third day at 44 for no loss, Essex still needed another 205 to avoid being beaten by an innings but wickets tumbled at regular intervals in the morning session so that a big Hampshire win – only their second at home – came within an hour of the resumption after lunch.Coles had Jake Middleburgh leg-before eleven balls into the day’s play and Gautam Gambhir edged Tomlinson to Liam Dawson at first slip in the next over to make Essex 49 for 2. Tom Westley became the first of five catches for wicketkeeper Michael Bates at 69 and Greg Smith went the same way, a second victim for Tomlinson, at 73 as Essex quickly subsided.At 117 for 6, Essex were already doomed but Ben Foakes and Napier at last applied some resistance in a stand of 39 for seventh. It was too little and far too late to alter the course of a one-sided match.Coles and Tomlinson returned later to wipe out the Essex tail, Tomlinson removing Napier and Sajid Mahmood while Coles, who said he is talking to several counties about his destination next season, finished off by dismissing Foakes for 27 and last man Monty Panesar in the 58th over.Coles’ five-match spell with Hampshire earned him a total of 21 wickets, including his best match figures here, helping his temporary club to 24 points from the win. Essex collected eight from a match they had to win but never looked like doing so once Foster had won the toss and watched as Hampshire amassed a first-innings total of 456.

Former England batsman Mark Butcher believes people are beginning to “see the merits” of ensuring more England players are involved in future editions of the IPL

Gaurav Kalra02-May-20155:02

Should more England players be part of the IPL?

Former England batsman Mark Butcher believes people are beginning to “see the merits” of ensuring more England players are involved in future editions of the IPL. Butcher, who is India on assignment with British broadcaster , told ESPNcricinfo that watching games from the grounds has been like “nothing else I’ve ever seen at cricket grounds around the world.””It’s quite remarkable, the fervour for the game and the atmosphere and the skill level,” he said. “When the IPL first began, it was more about what was happening off the field; giving the older players a bit of a pay day. In the last three-four years, though, the standard of cricket and the way that the game is being taken a lot more seriously and the way that the skills have been elevated to a new level has made it a wonderful combination. I have no doubt whatsoever that any players – whether they being young or old – will only improve by experiencing it and playing it.”Butcher is convinced that young England players, especially those identified as key to their limited-overs plans in the years ahead, such as Jos Buttler, Alex Hales, Chris Woakes and the likes, will benefit immensely from playing in the IPL. However, he said, they can only hope to attract interest from franchises if they are available to participate in the entire season and not for a short period, as is the case currently.”At the moment, because English players initially couldn’t stay for the entire duration of the tournament which meant that their price was not worth paying, people are not even looking at English players to play in the competition,” he said. “So, that’s going to change. I have no doubt about that. It will take us a little while because it always takes us a little while to catch up with things but people are now beginning to see the merits.”England’s shocking early exit from the World Cup has led to considerable churn in the country about how to bridge the gap with other countries in the limited-overs formats. Butcher believes that outcome has put “more pressure” to try and find ways to get more English players involved in the IPL.”If you play all your domestic cricket in one country, you do not know how cricketers do it in other countries like Bangladesh or India or South Africa,” he said. “Everybody has their own different things that they bring to the table. What we’re seeing with these players is that with them being exposed to more leagues around the world, it is no longer difficult for a New Zealander to come out and play brilliantly on slow Indian pitches. They know how to do it. That’s the learning curve you get by being here for six weeks.”While Butcher didn’t think it was possible to tweak the county season to allow English players to play the IPL, he advocated considering what he described as a “short-term loss” over “long-term gain”.”I think what the ECB and the counties have to look at is how much we gain in the long run by exposing some of our brightest and the best to competitions like the IPL,” he said. “You might lose out a little bit in the short term by missing your best players but what you will gain in the long term is the knowledge of playing under pressure when they come back which will pay dividends later on in the long run. So, you have to speculate a little bit to accumulate.”Former England batsman and coach David Lloyd, who also had his first first-hand experience of the IPL as a commentator this season, was equally enthused after his stint. Writing in his blog on , Lloyd conceded that while cricket won’t enjoy the same following in the UK as India, a template similar to the Big Bash League in Australia should be considered by the ECB.”We can certainly stage something very similar to the Big Bash. That would be our template – have eight teams, who play everybody twice,” Lloyd wrote. “If we could find a three-to-four-week window and block it off – that’s what all the players want but you’ve got to sell that idea to 18 counties so there’s got to be a will to do it that way. You’d have to play it alongside Test-match cricket – as they do in Australia – to fit it into the schedule and you’d have to try to attract the best players in the world and make it a real event.”

Ian Bell rarely misses an opportunity to shine when available for his county and his 90 off 65 balls guided the Birmingham Bears to a seven-wicket win

ECB/PA06-Jun-2015
ScorecardIan Bell made his highest T20 score in Birmingham’s victory•Getty Images

Ian Bell rarely misses an opportunity to shine when available for his county and his 90 off 65 balls guided Birmingham Bears to a seven-wicket win in their NatWest T20 Blast match at Chester-le-Street. Bell put his poor recent form for England behind him and won the contest with his international colleague Ben Stokes, who scored 40 from 28 balls but then saw three overs disappear for 44.In the windswept battle between the reigning Blast champions and the North Group leaders, Bell gave the Bears the initiative when he drove and pulled successive balls from Stokes for six.That was in the fourth over of their reply to 163 for 7, but they fell behind the rate when Paul Collingwood’s gentle floaters yielded only six runs in his first two overs. Needing 95 off the last 10, William Porterfield stepped on the gas by driving Collingwood over long-on then Bell twice cut Scott Borthwick wide of backward point.There was no let-up and when Stokes returned for the 16th over, as Bell straight drove two fours and guided two more to third man either side of a high full toss. Stokes had already had one warning for a full toss above waist height but this was deemed a slower ball and he was allowed to complete the over, which cost 21.Bell departed in the next over when he hit a short ball from John Hastings to mid-off, but the stand of 96 had left only 16 needed off three overs. Laurie Evans fell lbw to an Usman Arshad yorker, but Porterfield’s unbeaten 41 completed the task with five balls to spare.Durham were put in and had made only 6 when Phil Mustard fell in the third over, tamely pulling Oliver Hannon-Dalby to midwicket.Calum MacLeod survived a leading edge straight back to Recordo Gordon on nine to make 41 off 27 balls. The acceleration began when Boyd Rankin came on for the sixth over. Two of Rankin’s first three balls were short enough for Mark Stoneman to pull and, although he top-edged them, both flew high to fine leg, for four and six. MacLeod also cut a four as the over cost 15.But Stoneman departed for 18, lbw to a yorker from Gordon to bring in Stokes, who pulled the offspin of Ateeq Javid for six two overs later.With Jeetan Patel at the other end, both batsmen proved very adept at finding the gap between long-on and deep mid-wicket as the total reached 82 at the halfway point. But the momentum stalled as MacLeod drove Javid to long-on then Collingwood was run out for 4, sent back at the non-striker’s end and beaten by Porterfield’s direct hit from backward point.Stokes gave himself room to swing through a leg-stump ball from Rankin and hit it for a straight six, but the Bears’ gamble in leaving Javid on paid dividends when he had Stokes lbw for 40 attempting a reverse sweep.Hannon-Dalby came back for the 18th over in preference to Rikki Clarke and his first ball was driven for a straight six by Hastings as 14 came off the over. Hastings made 21 off 12 balls before driving to extra cover in the final over then Gordon Muchall straight-drove his only boundary in an unbeaten 30 off 20 balls.