Greg Shipperd, the Sydney Sixers’ coach, will take charge until the end of the season

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Nov-2022Former Australia batter Phil Jaques has lost his job as New South Wales head coach after the state’s poor start to the domestic season which sees them bottom of both the Sheffield Shield and Marsh Cup.A planned mid-season review during the BBL break was brought forward following NSW’s latest Shield defeat against Western Australia last week and it was announced on Tuesday morning that Jaques had left his role.Greg Shipperd, who is currently Sydney Sixers’ coach in the BBL, will take temporary charge until the end of the domestic season. He will begin with this week’s Shield match against Victoria before moving into his Sixers’ role then back to NSW for the latter part of the summer.Jaques came into the head coach role for the 2018-19 season having done two years with Queensland between 2015 and 2017 before returning to NSW as batting coach. NSW won the Sheffield Shield in the 2019-2020 season which was curtailed by the pandemic and the Marsh Cup in 2020-21.”On behalf of all at Cricket NSW I’d like to thank Phil for his contribution to cricket in NSW as both a player and coach,” Greg Mail, the NSW chief of cricket performance, said. “Phil is an immensely passionate NSW person and has given his all in his time as head coach, but we feel that now is the right time to make a change. We wish Phil well in his future endeavours.Shipperd is one of the most highly-regarded coaches in the Australian game and has also filled various roles around the world.”Greg Shipperd’s cricket acumen and his coaching record is well renowned, and we are very pleased that he has agreed to guide our Blues program while we take the time to understand our next move,” Mail said. “He has existing relationships with many of the players and staff and I expect his transition into the group, starting with this week’s match against Victoria, will be seamless.”

They have a young captain in Jason Sangha and Daniel Sams will have a vital role with bat and ball

Andrew McGlashan12-Dec-2022Captain Jason Sangha
Coach Trevor Bayliss

Squad

Ben Cutting, Ollie Davies, Brendan Doggett, Fazalhaq Farooqi (Afghanistan), Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Alex Hales (England), Baxter Holt, Nathan McAndrew, Usman Qadir (Pakistan), Alex Ross, Rilee Rossouw (South Africa), Daniel Sams, Gurinder Sandhu, Jason Sangha, Tanveer Sangha, David Warner, Sam WhitemanIn Rilee Rossouw, David Warner, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Sam Whiteman, Usman Qadir
Out Sam Billings, Usman Khawaja, Jonathan Cook, Saqib Mahmood, Chris Tremain, Mohammad Hasnain

What happened in the draft

It felt like they had done well with Alex Hales, David Willey and Rilee Rossouw. Willey was an enticing platinum pick with his availability for most of the season, but he recently withdrew from the deal sending Thunder back to the drawing board and they brought in Afghanistan left-armer Fazalhaq Farooqi. Hales will return to his long-term club on the back of T20 World Cup success and Rossouw has had an impressive season in the format. Both, however, will only be around until early January.Related

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Last season: Knockout

Thunder reached the finals on the back of a strong mid-season run where they won six games on the bounce including a 129-run hammering of Melbourne Renegades where Daniel Sams hit an astonishing 98 off 44 balls. But they fell short against Adelaide Strikers where they had got the equation down to 39 off 23 balls then 14 off the last over which Harry Conway was able to defend. Jason Sangha led the run-scoring with 445 at 49.44 and a strike-rate of 132.04 and Sams was the leading wicket-taker with 19 although Tanveer Sangha and Gurinder Sandhu were the most consistent performers.

International impact

The return of David Warner to the BBL was the big off-season story, but the window for his availability after the South Africa series may shrink with the squad due to depart for India in late January. Still, when he does suit up in green it will be one of the most anticipated moments of the tournament – especially the derby clash with Steven Smith’s Sydney Sixers. Beyond that, and the overseas players, Thunder are unlikely to be hit by international call-ups as they have no one else in the Test set-up with Usman Khawaja having moved to Brisbane Heat.

Key player

Daniel Sams is another player who might feel he has a part to play in the future of Australia’s T20 side after being on the fringes in recent seasons. For Thunder, he will have a big role to play with bat and ball, although with the later bringing down his economy rate a touch may help his international ambitions. In terms of the batting, it will be interesting to see how and where he is used. As he showed last season with that 98 he has the potential to be destructive, although that innings was an outlier in the campaign. But since then he has produced equally powerful innings in the T20 Blast (71 off 24 balls) and the Hundred (55 off 25 balls).

Young player to watch

Tanveer Sangha’s stress fracture is a blow to their bowling attack, but Ollie Davies caused instant excitement when he struck two quickfire innings at the start of his BBL career in late 2020, but things have been tougher since then making 74 in 11 innings. The early stages of this season were hindered as he came back from a hip injury but in November in made 115 off 106 balls playing for the combined NSW/ACT XI against West Indies in Canberra.

“You feel proud when you realise that you have achieved something that not many are able to,” Nadeem says after reaching the landmark of 500 first-class wickets

Syed Hussain17-Jan-2023Shahbaz Nadeem recently became the latest entrant in the club of bowlers with 500 first-class wickets. He got there in the previous round of Ranji Trophy matches, at the end of which, he also had 381 wickets in the tournament, putting him in 12th place for most successful bowlers in the Ranji Trophy. For a boy from Muzaffarpur, around 80 kilometres from Patna, reaching the milestone is a “feeling of satisfaction” and also one of having “achieved something that not many are able to”.”It’s a really nice feeling when, after playing for so many years [he made his first-class debut in December 2004], you reach a place like this, you achieve something big,” Nadeem told ESPNcricinfo. “As a cricketer, it’s a feeling of satisfaction, you feel happy. Whether you play for your country or for your state [in India’s domestic circuit], you feel proud when you realise that you have achieved something that not many are able to.”Nadeem has played all his domestic cricket for Jharkhand, a total of 129 first-class matches (before the start of the latest round in the Ranji Trophy, on January 17) and 127 List A matches, plus 144 T20s, which includes 72 appearances in the IPL, where he has been with Delhi Daredevils, Sunrisers Hyderabad and Lucknow Super Giants.Related

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Along the way, after knocking on the doors of the national team loudly and persistently for many years, he got to play two Tests: at his home venue of Ranchi, against South Africa, in October 2019, and in Chennai, against England, in February 2021. He has eight wickets from those two games.Nadeem’s career took off in right earnest after his father, a policeman, was transferred to Muzaffarpur from Dhanbad. In the 2004-05 season, he was picked to play for Jharkhand against Kerala in Jamshedpur (in Jharkhand, a state carved out of the larger state of Bihar in 2000). It was an unremarkable debut, as he picked up just two wickets in a drawn encounter, but he stuck it out, and has today made his name among India’s domestic giants.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

And now, after getting to 500, 600 doesn’t seem too far away. Nor does the magical number of 637, the Ranji Trophy wicket-taking record that’s in the name of Rajinder Goel, a left-arm spinner like Nadeem, who played 157 first-class matches between 1958-59 and 1984-85.”When I am playing, I don’t have specific targets, but yes, if you keep playing and keep performing well, you do achieve some goals, and if I can get to 653 wickets, it will be great,” Nadeem said. “But it’s not like that is my aim. I just want to keep performing well and making my team win.”

Shahbaz Nadeem waits for ‘another opportunity’ in Test cricket

At 33, after more than a decade-and-a-half of professional cricket, there might not be many opportunities for Nadeem to add to those two Test appearances, but he hasn’t stopped dreaming altogether.”The only thing I can do is keep picking up wickets, as many as possible, and I am doing that,” Nadeem, who has 30 wickets including three five-fors from five matches in this season’s Ranji Trophy so far, said. “I was third in the wicket-takers’ list last season [with 25 wickets from five matches], and I have been picking up wickets this season too.”I feel that if, season after season, I am among the top wicket-takers, , I can get another opportunity to play Test cricket.”Before that, though, there is a Ranji Trophy campaign to worry about, and for Jharkhand, placed third in Elite Group C behind Karnataka and Kerala at the moment, the remaining games are massive. As they are for Nadeem, who might tick off a few more milestones before he feels he has had enough.

India captain backs Ashwin’s suggestion to reduce the impact of dew on day-night ODIs

Deivarayan Muthu17-Jan-20230:46

‘I like the idea’ – Rohit on early starts in ODIs in India

Rohit Sharma is in favour of early starts at the ODI World Cup in India to reduce the impact of the dew factor and promote more even contests.Day-night ODIs in India start at 1.30pm and finish around 9pm, which is prime time on television, leading to greater viewership numbers for the BCCI and the broadcasters. Rohit, however, said that this gave the chasing team a significant advantage if there’s dew, because they get to bowl in dry conditions in the afternoon and bat when the dew gets the ball wet in the evening, making it easier to score.”I mean, it [having an early start] is a good idea because it’s a World Cup, right?,” Rohit said on the eve of the ODI series opener against New Zealand in Hyderabad. “You don’t want to compromise too much on the toss factor and you want to take that [advantage] completely away. I like that idea of an early start, but I don’t know if it’s possible.Related

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“The broadcasters will decide what time the game should start [laughs]. But ideally you don’t want that sort of advantage in the game. You want to see good cricket being played without one side having the advantage of batting under lights with the dew. But those are the things that are not in your control. But I like the idea of an early start.”During the first ODI against Sri Lanka in Guwahati, India were wary of the dew factor and showed greater intent while batting first to rack up a potentially dew-proof total of 373.After that game, India offspinner R Ashwin had suggested an earlier start time, arguing that a 11.30am start to World Cup matches wouldn’t necessarily hurt viewership figures because of what’s at stake.

LIVE in the UK and USA

You can watch the first ODI between India and New Zealand LIVE on ESPN Player in the UK and on ESPN+ in the USA.

“The quality difference between the teams isn’t coming through,” Ashwin said. “Dew is narrowing that gap if you happen to lose the toss. My suggestion – or rather my opinion – for the World Cup is to look at what venues we are playing in, and at what times. Why shouldn’t we start matches at 11.30am during the World Cup? Won’t all cricket fans prioritise the World Cup and watch matches at 11.30?”The Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad is known to favour teams that chase because of both dew and a fast outfield. There wasn’t much dew on Tuesday evening, though, as India’s players went through their drills on the main ground and had a net session at an adjacent facility around 6pm. Still, the dew remained a talking point, even among the visitors with New Zealand captain Tom Latham saying that it was a problem not just in India but all over the world.”I haven’t given a huge amount of thought to the change of match timings, but I think you see around the world at night time in different conditions where the ball does dew up or the ground does dew up,” Latham said. “And sometimes it can get hard to hold onto the ball and it does get a little bit slippery, but that’s something we’re presented with in international cricket where you’ve got to be able to be flexible to bowl with the wet ball or field in those conditions. You got to ride with whatever conditions you’re faced with and that’s adapting to the conditions as best as possible.”

South African batter to play county cricket for the first time

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-2023Durham have pulled off a major transfer coup, signing South African batter Tristan Stubbs for the T20 Blast.Stubbs will be available for the majority of the competition following his commitments with Mumbai Indians in the IPL.He was part of the Manchester Originals squad that reached the final of the Hundred last summer, but this will be his first experience playing county cricket.”We are extremely pleased to have secured the signing of Tristan Stubbs,” Marcus North, the club’s director of cricket, said.”At 22, he already has experience playing for South Africa and in major T20 franchise leagues around the world where he has produced some world-class performances.”Related

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Stubbs was the most expensive player signed at the inaugural SA20 auction last year and was part of the Sunrisers Eastern Cape squad that won the title earlier this month, despite an underwhelming season with the bat.There, he played alongside his new Durham team-mate Brydon Carse. “He’s only had good things to say about the club,” Stubbs said.”I can’t wait to get over to Durham and meet up with my new team-mates,” he added. “Having played in England last summer I know how much the fans love their cricket so it should be a really fun and successful summer.”Durham are one of five counties who have never won the Blast, and last reached Finals Day in 2016. Last season, they won only three games as they finished second-bottom of the North Group.They have also brought in Ollie Robinson, Nathan Sowter, Brandon Glover and Bas de Leede over the winter and will expect a better showing under new coach Ryan Campbell.

Jodie Grewcock fifty not enough as visitors breeze to small target

ECB Reporters Network01-May-2023Lauren Winfield-Hill maintained her remarkable Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy record with another commanding half-century to put Northern Diamonds back on track as they saw off Sunrisers by five wickets.The Diamonds opener passed 50 for the eighth time in her last 10 innings in the tournament to ensure the defending champions – defeated by Central Sparks on Saturday – responded with a comprehensive win at Chelmsford.Seam duo Lizzie Scott and Jessica Woolston laid the foundations with two wickets apiece before legspinner Katie Levick’s 3 for 23 ensured Sunrisers were bundled out for 157, despite Jodie Grewcock’s second half-century of the tournament.Winfield-Hill then top-scored with 51 from 43 balls and Bess Heath struck an unbeaten 32 from 25, as the visitors chased down their target with 21.3 overs to spare.Scott and Woolston, opening the attack after Diamonds had lost the toss and surprisingly been invited to bowl in overcast conditions, established control as they made the ball swing from the start. Woolston brought one back to uproot Cordelia Griffith’s off stump in her second over and then found movement in the opposite direction to clip the bails and pick up the prize scalp of Grace Scrivens for 11.Mady Villiers departed for a second-ball duck, clipping Scott to the diving Katherine Fraser at midwicket and, when Saskia Horley’s pull off Abi Glen flew straight to Hollie Armitage, Sunrisers were deep in the mire at 32 for 4.Grewcock and Jo Gardner dug in for a concerted rebuilding campaign during the middle overs, clawing their way back into the game with a spirited fifth-wicket partnership of 65. Gardner had just begun to open up, drilling Fraser back past the stumps for an isolated boundary, when she miscalculated a Chloe Tryon delivery and was bowled for 32 – after which Sunrisers’ innings hit the buffers again.Teenage left-hander Grewcock, having battled hard to complete her half-century from 91 balls, was then caught behind off the 93rd – the first of two wickets in three deliveries for Levick.Kate Coppack’s breezy unbeaten 16 at least hauled Sunrisers above the 150 mark before they were bowled out with four overs unused – but the total never looked like one they could defend with any degree of confidence.Winfield-Hill immediately set the tone for Diamonds’ response, slamming Coppack to the midwicket boundary twice inside the opening over as she and Sterre Kalis built a belligerent partnership of 53. Coppack’s luck seemed to be out, with Kalis edging her just over the stumps for four, and it was Sunrisers skipper Kelly Castle who eventually achieved the breakthrough, trapping the opener in front with a slower delivery.With Winfield-Hill striking the ball confidently and Armitage in no mood for caution, as she cracked Abtaha Maqsood to the rope three times in her first over, Diamonds appeared to be coasting towards their target.They were held up by Villiers, whose wily offbreaks brought her figures of 3 for 42 – the trio of victims including Winfield-Hill and Armitage, who until then had been highly effective against the slower bowlers in her knock of 30 from 32. However, Heath clubbed Villiers over long-on for the first six of the match – and then flayed the second off Eva Gray to seal Diamonds’ victory in style.

The Mumbai Indians captain felt they let Gujarat Titans score 20-25 runs extra and failed to stitch partnerships in the chase

ESPNcricinfo staff26-May-20232:03

Will Mumbai be happy with their season?

Mumbai Indians’ IPL campaign in 2023 came to an end with a 62-run defeat against Gujarat Titans in the second Qualifier in Ahmedabad. Their captain Rohit Sharma said that their batting and especially the performance of some of the younger players was the biggest positive for them from this season.Mumbai adopted an ultra-aggressive approach to compensate for the loss of several of their first-choice bowlers to injury, including Jasprit Bumrah and Jofra Archer. It saw them post totals of more than 200 six times this season, the most by any team in one edition of the IPL.”I mean playing this game, qualifying as third in the tournament, you know, it gives us a lot of confidence,” Rohit told the host broadcaster after the game.Related

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Mumbai had a slow start to the season, before coming out on top of a mid-table jam to make it to the playoffs. They then beat Lucknow Super Giants in the Eliminator to reach the second Qualifier.Players like Tilak Varma, who smashed 43 off 14 deliveries in their defeat on Friday, and Nehal Wadhera played a role in their run to the third-place finish.”Our batting actually was the biggest positive,” Rohit said. “Some of the younger players who have come through this tournament really well is a big positive for us, something that we can take into the next season and see what we can do with the squad.”On Friday, a glorious century from Shubman Gill powered Titans to 233. While Tilak, Suryakumar Yadav (61 off 38) and Cameron Green (30 off 20) played handy knocks, Mumbai were bowled out for 171.”Yeah, look, it was a great total. Shubman batted really well. The wicket was really good. We thought, you know they got 20-25 runs extra. But you know with the batting line-up we had, we were quite positive once we went inside after the first half,” Rohit said. “Couldn’t stitch long partnerships. Greeny and Surya batted well in the middle, but we just lost our way there a little bit.”Suryakumar Yadav made 61 off 38 against Gujarat Titans•AFP/Getty Images

Rohit felt that because they lost three wickets, Mumbai didn’t make the most of the powerplay, even as they raced to 72 after the first six overs.”We thought about giving it a good crack. We wanted to be positive. And you know, you’ve got to make full use of the powerplay as well, which didn’t go well for us. We lost a couple of wickets there and then, yeah, couldn’t get that momentum which you actually want when you’re chasing a target like that.”But I thought Surya and Greeny batted well in the middle, got something for us there. But yeah, you know what? We wanted one batter just like what Gujarat did, Shubman batted till the end. We wanted someone to go and bat and take the game till deep and you never know, anything can happen.”Mumbai had to improvise plans after Ishan Kishan suffered a concussion while fielding. He collided with Chris Jordan by accident and went off the field and was replaced by Vishnu Vinod, who became the IPL’s first concussion substitute. Wadhera opened with Rohit in Kishan’s absence.”Yeah, I mean, it’s something that we didn’t expect. He had a bit of a concussion there. I dont know how that happened, but yeah, it was a last-minute change,” Rohit said. “But you know as a team you’ve got to adapt. That is something that we’ve been talking about since the start of the tournament.”You’ve got to adapt to different conditions, different situations of the game. But yeah, I’m not going to look at that. We just didn’t play well to win the game.”Vinod came out to bat in the 12th over, ahead of Tim David, and made 5 off 7 deliveries. Rohit said that decision was so that David could get a later point of entry, which seems more suited to his game.”Tim through the season, we’ve given him a role, given him a certain situation of the game where he where he is going to bat. But yeah, I mean, look, we wanted Vishnu to come and play his game,” Rohit said. “He is a good player. We have seen that. I have seen that personally. I mean, like I said, it didn’t come off today. So I’m not going to look at any judgment that we made today went wrong. Its just that, you know, Gujarat came on top today.”

South Africa are now at No. 8 on the Super League table, while Ireland will have to go through the qualifying tournament to try and qualify for the World Cup

Firdose Moonda09-May-2023South Africa are “obviously chuffed” to have qualified directly for the men’s ODI World Cup, to be played in India later this year, after spending the bulk of the World Cup Super League outside of the top eight. And they have the weather in Chelmsford to thank for it.With the no-result in the first of three ODIs between Ireland and Bangladesh on Tuesday, even if Ireland go on to claim the series, they cannot surpass South Africa in eighth place on the Super League points table. Ireland are guaranteed a ninth-place finish, though, and will compete in the ten-team qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe, which runs from June 18 to July 9, and also includes former world champions West Indies and Sri Lanka.”We’re obviously chuffed to qualify directly because it makes life a lot simpler not having to go through the qualifying tournament,” Rob Walter, South Africa’s white-ball coach, told ESPNcricinfo. “But there would have been an upside to competing in the qualifier given the very quiet winter we have.”The men’s team last played ODI cricket against Netherlands on April 2 and have no matches scheduled until August 30, which amounts to almost five months of inaction after a redemptive summer, which ended with good results over England, West Indies and Netherlands, after chastening visits to Australia for the T20 World Cup and a Test series.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

South Africa returned empty-handed from both, but neither format mattered as much as ODIs. They started the year in 11th place on the Super League standings – well outside the automatic qualification zone – after series losses to Pakistan (2021 – home), Sri Lanka (2021 – away) and Bangladesh (2022 – home) and forfeiting a series in Australia (scheduled for January 2023) to allow their top cricketers to be available for the inaugural SA20 league.South Africa gave themselves the best chance of progressing to the World Cup with series wins over England and Netherlands, which lifted them into No. 8, but the final outcome was not in their hands, as they waited for the Ireland vs Bangladesh matches to take place.

Planning for World Cup already on, Rob Walter confirms

Walter confirmed that Cricket South Africa had put in place “two plans based on either eventuality” to execute: one if a trip to Zimbabwe was necessary, and another if South Africa held on to eighth place. The first of those would have necessitated Walter’s return from his home in New Zealand earlier than planned and seen a return to action for top players shortly after the end of the IPL on May 28. Now, they will only be called on later in the winter. The second plan has already begun, with a camp at the high-performance centre in Pretoria from Tuesday.Related

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“What we have now is the chance to spend some quality time outside of competition getting ourselves ready for a marquee event,” Walter said. “We have a number of camps planned throughout the winter in the lead up to the Australia series which obviously forms our final preparation for the World Cup. There is also the ‘A’ side tour to Sri Lanka, so we have tried to ensure significant skill development opportunities and time in the middle from a competitive point of view.”South Africa A, captained by Tony de Zorzi and with eight Test caps, will play three one-day matches and two four-day games against Sri Lanka A next month. The white-ball fixtures were pencilled in on Sri Lanka’s request, to ready themselves for the qualifying tournament in June. Gerald Coetzee and Tristan Stubbs, who earned ODI caps this year, are both in the touring party, and could put themselves into consideration for the World Cup squad.The bulk of players who will be involved in the ODI plans are involved at the IPL. Quinton de Kock, Kagiso Rabada, Marco Jansen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Anrich Nortje, Heinrich Klaasen, Wayne Parnell and Sisanda Magala have all played, while Lungi Ngidi is also at the tournament, though he has not got a game. South Africa also have players at the Hundred and CPL over the winter and CSA will monitor their performances throughout this time.”All players have an individual analysis highlighting strengths and specific areas of focus in the period,” Walter said. “This is all planned alongside our players’ involvement in the different leagues that continue on through the winter.”

A seventh win for the Outlaws puts them in a strong position to claim a quarter-final place

ECB Reporters Network20-Jun-2023Joe Clarke hit three sixes in a 41-ball 72 and Colin Munro 28 off 17 as a blistering start by the Outlaws proved to be enough to set up a 22-run North Group victory over Leicestershire Foxes in the Vitality Blast.The Outlaws were 78 for 1 after eight overs having opted to bat first, and though the Foxes came back strongly with the ball to restrict the visitors to 165 for 8, their efforts with the bat proved woefully inadequate.Nick Welsh (32 from 30) and Peter Handscomb (28 from 30) put on 63 for the first wicket but despite Wiaan Mulder striking 38 from 26 balls late in the innings, the Foxes fell 23 runs short of their target, Steven Mullaney taking 3 for 18 from his four overs, leg spinner Calvin Harrison 2 for 14 and Shaheen Shah Afridi 2 for 28.Pace-bowling all-rounder Tom Scriven took a career-best 4 for 21 for the Foxes in only his fifth Blast appearance, backed up by 3 for 22 from canny left-arm spinner Callum Parkinson, while Mike Finan equalled the county record for the format with four outfield catches.Yet they ended on the losing side again as their side suffered their ninth defeat from 11 matches to remain rooted to the bottom of the group.A seventh win for the Outlaws puts them in a strong position to claim a quarter-final place, although they suffered a double blow on the night with overseas star Munro unable to field after suffering what looked like a hamstring injury while batting, and veteran all-rounder Samit Patel leaving the field with an apparent ankle injury after the fourth ball of his third over.The Outlaws were 60 for 1 after an eventful powerplay which saw Parkinson dismiss Alex Hales for the fourth time in five seasons but then drop one of two catching chances the Foxes failed to hold.Munro was put down at short fine leg on five off left-armer Finan before Parkinson spilled an easier one at short third man as Clarke, on 26, went for the ramp against Matt Salisbury, Munro finishing the over with four and six. The Foxes were generally sloppy in the field in the powerplay.Munro needed lengthy treatment in the seventh over, was able to continue as Colin Ackermann’s first over went for 15 but fell in the ninth as he mistimed a lofted drive against Rehan Ahmed to be caught at long on, two tidy overs from the leg-spinner checking the Outlaws’ progress a little as they reached the halfway point at 91 for 2.Clarke stepped on the accelerator, adding sixes off Finan and Scriven to an earlier maximum off Ackermann as the next 22 balls saw the Foxes leak 41 runs but the shape of the Outlaws innings then changed dramatically with the loss of three wickets in seven balls.Scriven, hammered down the ground for six by Clarke the previous delivery, took revenge when the Outlaws’ leading run-scorer miscued high in the air to backward point, before Parkinson struck twice in five balls, having Matt Montomery caught at long off before trapping Tom Moores leg before on the back foot.Notts had slipped from 133 for 2 to 136 for 5, a triple blow that cost them all their momentum with only 29 added in the final five overs as Scriven rounded off a fine performance with three wickets and just eight runs conceded in his two death overs.Samit Patel holed out to long off and Finan became the third Foxes player – along with Arron Lilley and Wiaan Mulder – to take four outfield catches in a single Blast innings by safely pouching Shaheen Afridi and then Mullaney in the deep on the leg side.Foxes openers Welch and Handscomb were not able to match the Outlaws’ explosive start but did not lose a wicket in posting 42 runs from the powerplay, although the Australian would have been run out on seven had a Hales’ throw hit.Yet they struggled to find any acceleration and were already lagging behind the required rate at 74 for 1 after 10, having by then lost Handscomb, stumped going down the pitch to Mullaney, as Moores made amends for missing him off Samit Patel the over before.Rishi Patel announced himself with a pulled six off Calvin Harrison but perished in the next over, well caught on the extra cover boundary as a reverse-sweep went wrong and Mullaney claimed a second wicket.Next over, Welch holed out to Hales at deep midwicket before Ackermann departed in the most bizarre fashion, handing Mullaney a caught-and-bowled chance which he dropped but claimed at a juggling second attempt as the ball bounced back to him off the chest of Mulder, who was standing a yard from him at the non-striker’s end.By now, the run-rate was beginning to look beyond the Foxes, who lost Ahmed caught behind as Harrison completed the stricken Samit Patel’s unfinished over before Scriven found Hales on the long-on boundary, with 70 needed from 27 balls.Mulder launched back-to-back sixes off Jake Ball but they were no more than a consolation with 29 needed off a final over in which Shaheen bowled him and Finan in the space of four balls.

Ireland fall well short in the second T20I, with four run-outs hurting their batting effort in a big way

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Jul-2023Hayley Matthews was at it again, leading West Indies with the bat after chipping in with the ball, to take them to a comfortable eight-wicket win over Ireland in the second of three T20Is in Gros Islet to sew up the series.Like in the first game, where she was Player of the Match for her 3 for 22 and 42-ball 37, which took West Indies to a last-ball win, Matthews was Player of the Match again here. She first returned 1 for 24 to help restrict Ireland to a modest 113 for 7, and then scored 50 in 39 balls, with nine fours, to put West Indies in sight of victory before being dismissed.Chinelle Henry’s 12-ball 22 and Shabika Gajnabi’s unbeaten 29-ball 17 finished the job for West Indies in 16.4 overs, very different to how tense it got in the first game, where West Indies were chasing an almost identical target, of 113.”I think we’re pretty happy with the result,” Matthews was quoted as saying by Cricket West Indies after the match. “Coming into this tour, we wanted to be able to take home both series [West Indies won the ODIs 2-0], so just very happy that we were able to go out there and win convincingly today and secure the T20I series.”We had more intent going out today and we noticed early on that the wicket was a bit better on today and we went out with the intent to chase down the runs quicker. What really helped us today was the fielding, the catches and run-outs we were able to take, kudos to the overall team for the bowling performance they put on and the fielders for backing them up.”Indeed, more than Matthews or any of the other West Indies bowlers – Shamilia Connell and Cherry-Ann Fraser took one wicket each, too – it was the run-outs that stymied Ireland after they had opted to bat. The first wicket, that of Gaby Lewis, was to a run-out, and the collapse from 77 for 3 in the 16th over to 113 for 7 by the end featured three more run-outs.Amy Hunter, the opener, was the best of their batters on the day, scoring 33 in 35 balls with four fours, while Laura Delany chipped in with a 35-ball 20 and there were cameos at the end from Eimear Richardson (16 in 15 balls), Rebecca Stokell (15 in 11) and Arlene Kelly (13 in nine).Matthews lost her opening partner Rashada Williams (16 in 20) off the first ball of the seventh over after a 40-run stand, which put them on the road to victory. And after Matthews fell, Henry and Gajnabi took West Indies home with lots to spare.The tour-ending third T20I will be played on July 8, also in Gros Islet.