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Lahore and Multan to host a total of four matches; Colombo the other venue in Sri Lanka

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jul-20230:45

Rahul Dravid: Would be ‘fantastic’ if India meet Pakistan thrice in Asia Cup

The 2023 Asia Cup will kick off in Multan with Pakistan taking on Nepal on August 30, a day earlier than originally planned by the Asian Cricket Council. The first-round Pakistan-India game will be played in Kandy on September 2, and if both teams make it to the Super 4s, the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo will be the host for that game.Lahore is the other venue in Pakistan that will host the matches. The final is scheduled in Colombo on September 17, with the provision of a reserve day.The original draft schedule, prepared by the PCB (the hosting board), went through several iterations, mainly because of the six-nation tournament being played in Pakistan and Sri Lanka based on the hybrid model approved by the ACC recently.As per the original draft, Pakistan were meant to host four matches in just one city. However, Multan was added as the second venue after a new PCB administration, under new chairman Zaka Ashraf, took over this month.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

In all, 13 matches will be played in the tournament across four venues. Pakistan are grouped with India and Nepal in Group A while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and Afghanistan are in Group B. The top two teams from each group will qualify for the Super 4s with the top two teams in this phase advancing to the final. The Asia Cup, which will be played in the 50-overs format this time, is essentially a preparation run for five of the six teams – barring Nepal – for the ODI World Cup, which begins on October 5 in India.Bangladesh are slotted to play Afghanistan on September 3 in Lahore followed by Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan at the Gaddafi Stadium on September 5. Regardless of where they finish in the first round, Pakistan will remain A1 and India A2, while Sri Lanka will be B1 and Bangladesh B2. In case Nepal and Afghanistan qualify for the Super 4s, they will take the slot of the team knocked out (Pakistan or India in Group A, and Sri Lanka or Bangladesh in Group B).The only Super 4s match listed to be played in Pakistan is on September 6 in Lahore, between A1 and B2.

Young quick impressed on recent Australia A tour of New Zealand

ESPNcricinfo staff02-May-2023Australian fast bowler Jordan Buckingham has joined Northamptonshire.Buckingham, 23, impressed for South Australia in the most recent Sheffield Shield season, and has a record of 25 wickets at an average of 26.56 in his first seven first-class matches. That includes being selected for the Australia A tour of New Zealand in April, where he took 6 for 58 in his first appearance, dismissing the New Zealand A top six.”I’m really grateful for the opportunity to represent such a proud club in Northamptonshire during my first stint in the UK.” Buckingham said. “I’m thoroughly looking forward to getting stuck into it this week and to winning some four-day cricket with my new team-mates for the next few games.”Related

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Buckingham trained with Northamptonshire’s squad this week ahead of their trip to Somerset and is available for the club’s next three LV= Insurance County Championship fixtures.John Sadler, Northamptonshire’s head coach, said: “We’re delighted to have Jordan on board. He’s an exciting young prospect who’s rated highly by Cricket Australia. He showed his quality for Australia A recently and we think he’ll complement our bowling attack well.”Northamptonshire had signed Australian seamers Chris Tremain and Lance Morris, who were due to split six Championship games between them. Tremain has finished his stint while Morris has suffered a back injury, ruling him out of his planned cameo as well as Ashes calculations.

The Australia fast bowler, who was omitted from the ODI squad to face India, said his back soreness should not have been enough to leave him out

Andrew McGlashan06-Jan-2019Fast bowler Nathan Coulter-Nile has criticised poor communication from the Australia selectors over his omission from the one-day squad to face India, saying the back soreness that was given as the official reason should not have been enough to exclude him.When Australia’s squad was named, Trevor Hohns, the national selector, said Coulter-Nile, who has a history of back problems, could not be risked in the 50-over format. The following day, after the ODI group had been named, a scan cleared him of any problems and he claimed 3 for 25 for Perth Scorchers in the Big Bash League.”I didn’t take [the news] the best, to be honest,” Coulter-Nile told ABC Radio. “I think it was communicated to me really poorly.”I won’t go into it, but I don’t think soreness is really any excuse for not playing cricket. In fairness, I hadn’t had a scan yet. I had had back soreness and back history, but I hadn’t had a scan to see what was wrong. I had one when I got home and it was all clear.””They picked the team before I had a scan to know what was wrong with my back, that’s just when the team was picked to come out.”Coulter-Nile played just one of the three ODIs against South Africa last year, sending down a wayward opening over when given the new ball in Perth, and will now have to hope he can earn a recall for the series in India next month in order to push his World-Cup claims.ALSO READ: Chaotic selections put Australia’s World Cup at riskHe understands that there will always be a cautious approach taken to fast bowlers with a history of suffering back problems but said he wanted to be aware of the full picture. It is understood that the selectors maintain their view that it would have been too great a risk for Coulter-Nile to play 50-over matches.”I was getting some mixed messages about what was happening – that’s just the way it is,” he said. “I have no issue with being dropped, I just like to get a clear message about why – I was told it was because I had a sore back.”JL [coach Justin Langer] asked me when they were selecting the team, I said I have a sore back but I haven’t had a scan yet. With my history, it was just better off to check it. I think communication used to be a little bit better – from everyone.”The subject of communication between selectors and players was also highlighted by ACA president Greg Dyer amid the ongoing debate about potential being given more sway than performance.”I think from time to time we hear of disquiet around the logic behind particular selections,” Dyer told SEN Radio. “You hear a lot of disquiet around ‘I just don’t understand what it is that I did or what I didn’t do or what is the basis for what’s happening’.”In a more positive view of how the selectors and players work together Peter Handscomb, who has been in and out of the Test side during this series and has been asked to make technical changes, said he always knew where he stood in discussions.”They’ve all been open and honest conversations, which has actually been really good. I’ve been able to push my case with them with some really, really good conversations and they tell me where I stand whether what I need to improve or how they see me in the Test side.”

England’s top-scorer content to have his Test place back as he targets a fourth-day victory push on a wearing wicket

Melinda Farrell at the Ageas Bowl01-Sep-20180:59

Stokes and I bring the best out of each other – Buttler

Jos Buttler says he is “not fussed” about being England’s first-choice wicketkeeper and hosed down any suggestion of a rivalry with Jonny Bairstow over the role at the end of the third day at the Ageus Bowl.Buttler has had mixed fortunes behind the stumps after Bairstow’s fractured finger forced a him to hand over the gloves for this Test but, while Bairstow has made it clear he wants to reclaim the job as soon as he is fit, Buttler said there was no jostling for the role or problems between the two team-mates.”Not at all from my angle, and not from Jonny’s either,” said Buttler. “It’s not been a problem at all.”Obviously Jonny’s not fit to keep wicket in this match, which is frustrating for him because he’s been fantastic for the last few years. Whatever happens moving forward, it doesn’t affect me or Jonny.After a day in which England’s rejigged top order struggled to assert themselves, Butter – who top-scored with 69 – suggested that, far from coveting the gloves full time, he is simply happy to keep his place in the Test team.”I’m not fussed,” he said. “From a few months ago, to even be in the Test match side is fantastic – so gloves on or not, it doesn’t matter.”England were 122 for 5 when Buttler joined Ben Stokes at the crease and, while Sam Curran impressed once more with his fearless brand of batting, it was the Buttler-Stokes partnership that righted the ship after Joe Root was run out for the second time in the series.”We’ve batted together in quite a lot of situations in different formats, so that rapport is obviously comforting in a way and allows you to get the best out of each other,” Buttler said of a player who has been a regular team-mate in white-ball cricket for England and, latterly, for Rajasthan Royals in the IPL too.”We’ve got that right, left-hand combination, trying to rotate the strike and not let bowlers settle. We just went about it the same way … trying to extend the partnership, and slowly and steadily building the lead.”With a lead of 233 and two wickets in hand, England may just have the upper hand in this contest, although it would be foolish to discount what the likes of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara could produce in the fourth-innings chase. But Buttler feels there are signs the pitch could be deteriorating sufficiently for Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid to make inroads in India’s batting line-up.”You’ve seen the wear and tear in the wicket – even in the first innings as well, there was quite a bit of rough outside the right-hander’s off-stump,” said Buttler.”That’s promising for Moeen and Adil – and with the seamers, we’ve seen a bit of variable bounce. So I think it’s nice to have the runs on the board.”

Max Walters has become the third state chief in a little more 12 months to resign, due to internal squabbles over club cricket in the state

Daniel Brettig03-Jun-2019Max Walters, Queensland Cricket’s chief executive, has become the third state supremo to resign in a little more than 12 months, joining the former Victoria chief Tony Dodemaide in quitting at a time of internal squabbles over club cricket in their state.The New South Wales chief executive Andrew Jones also vacated the field earlier this year, though Walters’ exit appears to share more in common with that of Dodemaide and the former Cricket Victoria chairman Russell Thomas in 2018.Having joined Queensland in 2016, after the CA Board director Michael Kasprowicz temporarily stepped in as caretaker CEO in place of Geoff Cockerill, Walters and his chairman Sal Vasta have run into difficulty over the task of dividing up money raised by the state association off the back of strategic funding handed over by CA’s Board in the recent past.It is an issue being debated at several levels of Australian cricket, also including the fund delivered by the Australian Cricketers’ Association following the hot-tempered 2017 pay dispute over the current MoU between the players and CA.There, as in Queensland, the debate centres on how the money will be distributed, whether on a strategic case-by-case basis – much as the money was handed from CA to Queensland – or via uniform grants applied to every club. With Vasta also believed to be under pressure, Walters informed QC staff of his decision to quit in an email on Sunday night.”The past three years working at Queensland Cricket have been extremely rewarding and enjoyable. I originally committed to a three-year contract at QC, and with that period nearing its conclusion, now is the right time for me to move on,” Walters said.”I hope people will agree that Queensland Cricket has made positive steps forward during my tenure. There is now a solid launching pad for success into the future, both on and off the field. I wish every good fortune to Queensland Cricket, and would like to thank the army of tireless volunteers in all the Clubs, big and small, across our great State that keep cricket moving.”Dodemaide and Thomas both departed Cricket Victoria in 2018 following a series of disagreements over the shape of Premier Cricket and the governance of clubs in the state – Dodemaide facing criticism from his own club, Footscray, amid the arguments.Walters, meanwhile, has overseen considerable work on Queensland’s sustainability, both in terms of infrastructure funding and sponsorship levels. It was during Walters’ tenure that the Gabba’s traditional standing as the venue for the opening Test of summer came under strain, missing out in both 2016 and 2018. Next summer it will host Pakistan and was recently confirmed as hosting the opening Ashes Test in 2021. However India’s 2020 visit remains shrouded in uncertainty after the BCCI preferred to commence last summer’s home series in Adelaide.”Max Walters returned to Queensland Cricket in 2016 with the objective to make QC the State’s leading sporting organisation and to ensure that our strategy revolved around delivering outstanding life experiences for Queensland communities anywhere, anytime,” Queensland’s chairman Vasta said. “He has delivered in spades.”Corporate entities such as CUA and Betta, all three levels of government and the Queensland community at large all recognise the professionalism and expertise of QC that has been achieved under Max’s stewardship.”Our strategic plan is the envy of other sporting organisations and clearly allows fans, sponsors and the Queensland Cricket family at large to see and understand our priorities. Max has been front and centre over the past three years and leaves QC well positioned to make even greater strides in the future.”

Head coach says players got ahead of themselves in the match against Netherlands and “seeds of doubt” crept in

Hemant Brar02-Nov-2022After being “outplayed” by Netherlands in Adelaide, Zimbabwe head coach Dave Houghton said his players got ahead of themselves given the significance of the match and had “seeds of doubt” in their minds.Had Zimbabwe won, and then beaten India in their next game, they could have been in with a chance, although an outside one, to make the semi-finals of the men’s T20 World Cup. However, yet another batting failure meant they could put up only 117 and lost by five wickets, the defeat pushing them to the brink of elimination.Related

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“We’ve been quite fragile with our batting throughout this tournament,” Houghton said after the game. “It has been our bowling, really, and fielding and catching, that has kept us in. Unfortunately, it [the batting] let us down in a game like this, which would have been huge for us if we had won, because then we’ll go on to the next game with just that outside possibility. I think we just got a little bit in front of ourselves thinking of what the possibilities might be.”One of the things I’ve tried to encourage to the team, even if our batting is a bit fragile, is to still be positive and play with fearlessness. There was a bit of movement in that wicket, and we needed to do something about it. We needed to be batting a bit more positively, using our feet going down the wicket at the seamers, but we didn’t. The seeds of doubt just kept us stuck to the crease, and unfortunately, it cost us.”Since I’ve been in charge of the side, the last four-and-a-half months, we’ve had an incredible journey; we’ve played some really good cricket. This is probably the first time that I’ve seen a bit of doubt creep into our game. Hopefully, it’ll be the last time for a while as well.”Earlier in the tournament, Zimbabwe had beaten Pakistan in a last-ball thriller but the high didn’t last long as they lost to Bangladesh in dramatic fashion, also on the final ball of the game.Houghton was asked if the result against Bangladesh played a part in today’s game.”Oh, no, I don’t think so,” he said. “I think we just had the doubt here. I think it was because of a new surface [this was the first match in Adelaide this World Cup]. We took a couple of days off between the two games, because our guys were so tired. I just couldn’t make them practice again. So that might have sown a little bit of the doubt that they hadn’t actually been to the ground.”And the occasion – we knew we needed to win one of the games against Bangladesh and Holland [Netherlands]. We lost closely to Bangladesh, so we thought, well, we need to beat Holland. That extra bit of pressure on them [the players], plus the fact that we hadn’t been down here beforehand, might have sown the seeds of doubt.”Regis Chakabva’s sub-par returns with the bat played a part in Zimbabwe not putting up challenging totals. In seven innings, the wicketkeeper-batter has scored only 45 runs at an average of 6.42 and a strike rate of 77.58.Chakabva started the tournament batting at the top of the order but was moved down to No. 6 in the last two games. Against Netherlands, he came in at No. 3, was offered two lives during his 16-ball stay but could score only five.”The biggest reason for moving batters around is that we’re not getting enough runs out of various players,” Houghton said. “I mean, we’ve been literally living on some runs from Sean Williams and [Sikandar] Raza for the last short while and one or two contributions from Wessly [Madhevere] and occasionally from Craig Ervine. So it has been difficult. We’re having to move people around to see if we can adjust the order a bit to make life a little bit easier so hopefully we get bigger contributions from everyone. As I said, our batting has been brittle throughout this tournament. So we’ve done incredibly well to get where we’ve got to.”Sikandar Raza has been, arguably, the prime reason for Zimbabwe’s run of good results•ICC via Getty Images

Overall, it has been a positive tournament for Zimbabwe. After a dominant show in the qualifying event in Bulawayo, they topped their group in the first round in Australia and then almost threatened a semi-final spot. Houghton said that the performance has “brought the game back to life” back home.”It has meant a hell of a lot to people at home, and not just people at home, but Zimbabweans all around the world,” he said. “The messages that we get on a regular basis from everybody have been unbelievable. We’ve had quite a few night games in this tournament, after which get back to the hotel at half past 11 and I’m still answering messages at 4-5 in the morning. It has been phenomenal and we know because we have been getting the videos posted [of the celebrations] as well.”We know how it has been taken at home. The thing is they’ve enjoyed the way we play. They’ve enjoyed the fact that we are able to come out and stand toe to toe with some of the best. And even though we have lost today, they will still have enjoyed watching us and they will still be proud of us. I said to the guys after the game that win or lose, our crowd is behind us, and you guys have brought the game back to life in Zimbabwe.”If you had told me in June, when I started, that we would end up being sort of two games away about with the possibility of getting to a semi-final, I would have bitten your hand off for it. But it has been a positive journey for us all the way through. It’s just a pity we chose this game to have our worst game.”

Yorkshire’s interest in Liam Plunkett lapsed the moment he accepted a late IPL deal, leaving Surrey to offer him a three-year contract

David Hopps26-Jul-2018Liam Plunkett has signed a three-year deal with Surrey and will leave Yorkshire at the end of the season after becoming the first casualty of the IPL rivalry to England’s county gamePlunkett’s future at Yorkshire was thrown into question on the eve of the season when he accepted a last-minute offer to go to the IPL as a replacement for the injured South African quick Kagiso Rabada at Delhi Daredevils.His departure, plus that of his team-mate David Willey, who also won a late deal with Chennai Super Kings, severely weakened Yorkshire in the early part of the season and prompted Martyn Moxon, the county’s director of cricket, to call for a cut-off window for late IPL call-ups.Willey did sign a new contract at Headingley, but Yorkshire came to the conclusion that Plunkett no longer offered value for money, also taking into account his regular absence with England’s ODI side, and presented white-ball only deals as an inevitable future consequence of divided loyalties.Surrey have the financial clout to play the longer game, in the anticipation that Plunkett may soon be available more regularly, but even for them, and even considering Plunkett’s exceptionally high level of physical fitness, a three-year deal at 33 for an out-and-out fast bowler represents a calculated risk.Alec Stewart, Surrey’s director of cricket, made light of that, saying: “When a player of Liam’s ability and experience becomes available it makes perfect sense to sign him. Adding him to our squad gives us great options in all formats and we look forward to seeing him playing for Surrey over the coming years.”Yorkshire’s emphasis, meanwhile, is on developing a group of young pace bowlers with good availability to foster consistency and togetherness.Moxon said: “We are trying to assemble a squad that has availability and is within our budget to compete in all three domestic competitions. With that in mind we are not in a position to be able to offer Liam a new contract. He has played a big part in our recent success and we obviously thank him for that and wish him well for the future.”In 2017, Plunkett claimed 36 one-day international wickets in the calendar year, the joint-second best haul in the world behind only Afghanistan legspinner Rashid Khan. He is ranked No. 20 on the ICC’s list of ODI bowlers.But 2017 saw him play only 10 times across all three forms for Yorkshire, with injury ruling him out for large parts as well as the regular international commitments. This year could be even more unproductive as he has played only three Royal London Cup matches and one game in the Vitality Blast.Plunkett, a four-time Specsavers County Championship winner – twice with Durham in 2008 and 2009, and twice with Yorkshire in 2014 and 2015 – was a faltering county pro when Yorkshire took him from Durham, his confidence low and his accuracy awry.Moxon, who had worked with him at Durham, retained faith in his ability and he rebuilt his career under the tutelage of Jason Gillespie, Yorkshire’s former coach, as he concentrated on fast, aggressive bowling – short or full.That method should be suited to The Oval’s pitches and Surrey will surely make better use of him than Yorkshire as a dangerous lower-order hitter in T20. That reluctance in a side not overstocked with late-order firepower has been hard to understand.”It’s disappointing that it has come to an end,” Plunkett said. “Obviously Yorkshire took a chance on me after Durham and I appreciate everything they’ve done for me. I feel as though I’ve played some of my best cricket at Yorkshire, including getting myself back in to the England team.”There comes a time in people’s careers where you don’t get offered a contract. Obviously, Yorkshire want to go in a different direction. I feel like I’ve met some really good people, made some fond memories and won some good trophies for an incredibly passionate club.”

A solid display from the Derbyshire top order made a tough day for the Durham bowlers

ECB Reporters Network11-May-2018
ScorecardEngland fast bowler Mark Wood was upstaged on his Durham return by a strong Derbyshire batting display on the opening day of the Division Two County Championship match at Derby.Wood bowled 14 overs but failed to take a wicket in the last round of first-class matches before England’s first Test against Pakistan in two weeks as Derbyshire closed on 301 for 4 after bad light ended play early.Wayne Madsen passed 9000 first-class runs for Derbyshire during his unbeaten 80, sharing a century stand with Billy Godleman who made 61 while Ben Slater scored 55 with James Weighell taking two wickets.Not surprisingly Wood took the new ball after Durham opted to bowl first on a cool, blustery day and was hit for two fours by Ben Slater in his first over from the City End.His next four overs went for only 12 runs but although he did get some swing, he could not make the early breakthrough Durham hoped for which was perhaps not surprising given he only returned from the IPL this week.Former Derbyshire seamer Nathan Rimmington also got some movement but Durham’s bowling lacked the consistency to exert pressure and by the time Wood returned for a three over second spell before lunch, both Slater and Luis Reece were established.Reece needed lengthy treatment following a blow on the left hand from Weighell who put Durham back in the game as Derbyshire lost three wickets in six overs after the interval.Slater slapped a wide ball from Rimmington to point before Weighell got one to bounce on Reece who edged a back foot forcing stroke to Stuart Poynter who held on at the second attempt.When Weighell defeated Alex Hughes with an inswinging yorker, the day was back in the balance, especially given Godleman’s lack of runs this season.But three fours from a Matt Dixon over got him going and he reached his 50 with a rasping square cut to the boundary off Woods shortly before tea.With Madsen playing with increasing authority, the stand was worth 114 in 32 overs when Godleman was lbw to a full length ball from Dixon but Matt Critchley joined Madsen to make sure it was Derbyshire’s day before the light faded.

Australia had asked the VCA Stadium ground staff if they could leave the centre wicket and training pitches untouched for players to train on Sunday afternoon

Alex Malcolm12-Feb-20233:35

Smith: Don’t think our first-innings 177 was enough

Australia’s training plans for the day after the Nagpur Test ended have been scuppered after the ground staff at the VCA Stadium watered the centre and practice pitches overnight despite a request from the visitors to use the facilities on Sunday.Australia’s team management asked the VCA ground staff if they could leave the centre wicket and training pitches up in order for players to train on Sunday afternoon. But the ground staff were watering the centre wicket on Saturday night after the team had left the ground. Australia had planned to have an optional session with five players in the squad set to head to the stadium on Sunday afternoon but those plans were cancelled with the practice pitches having been watered too.Related

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ESPNcricinfo contacted the VCA for comment but was simply told both teams would train tomorrow.The cancellation of training is a blow to Australia as they scramble to find a way to get back into the series with their batters needing to find a method to handle Ravindra Jadeja and R Ashwin after the pair scythed through the visitors in both innings to bowl them out for 177 and 91.Head coach Andrew McDonald identified that Australia’s batters needed to be more proactive after a host of players got caught on the crease during the second innings collapse.”We felt as though we probably weren’t as proactive as what we needed to be in the extreme conditions,” McDonald said on Sunday. “In Galle [last year] we showed that in Test match one [against Sri Lanka] where we were really proactive. And in this instance, we probably weren’t and that showed up in the second innings.”If you stand still and look to defend for long periods of time against that quality spin line-up you’ve got pretty much a ball with a number on it and unfortunately, we weren’t able to get into the method that we wanted to apply.”We saw very little sweeping which is something that we valued leading in as well. So we’ll review why that was the case. And there’s no doubt that when you’re under extreme pressure like that, and you’re behind the game sometimes you narrow in and we need to be more expansive than that.”I thought Steve Smith summed it up really well after he came off and said we’re going to have to be brave, take some risks, take the ball down the ground, push some fielders out and give ourselves the ability to rotate the strike. They were able to crowd us, swarm us and we weren’t able to push the fielders back. You look at the way they played, they were able to push the fielders back, they took calculated risks. So you can always learn from the opposition, but you don’t want to be them in the same instance as well. We’re going to have to do it slightly differently.”

‘Cameron Green and Mitchell Starc back on the selection table’

Australia are also considering whether to make changes for the second Test with Queensland left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann flying in to join the squad for the second Test in Delhi as Mitchell Swepson flies home for the birth of his first child.Mitchell Starc is also likely to be available after flying into Delhi yesterday. Cameron Green is pushing to play the second Test but it might be a stretch as continues to recover from his broken finger while Josh Hazlewood remains unavailable due his Achilles issue.But McDonald was wary of making wholesale changes after one defeat.”If you feel as though your preparation was good and the way you want to go about it is good then you re-commit to that,” McDonald said.”If you shift and try to change too much that’s when you get lost as a touring team. We’ve seen teams come to Australia and try to do the same. We need to be committed to what we want to achieve.”Will there be changes? Potentially, we have Green and Starc back on the selection table so that will totally change the balance of how we want to go about things. However, we feel as though when we came here we had a clear vision of how to play, how we want to go about it and we need to reinvest into that.”We feel as though it can work and the players within the changeroom are very capable for the challenges ahead. We had a slight setback in the first Test match, we got behind in the game. We clearly know where we need to improve. If we improve those areas the margins will narrow very quickly.”

Opener reaches third hundred of Championship season as visitors eye vital victory at Gloucestershire

David Hopps20-Sep-2022Dom Sibley could have been a guardsman at the funeral of Queen Elizabeth. He has that sense of duty about him. He is an upright sort who knows how to stand perfectly still. He can march in time as the pitch instructs him, never too slowly, never too fast. Indomitable, someone called him, and he was precisely that. Just what you need at a time of crisis.He reached his third Championship hundred of the season, and 18th of his career, as the light faded over Bristol, 15 minutes from the close. There was no excess – there had been none throughout the day – merely a workaday clip through wide mid-on against the left-arm spinner Zafar Gohar, the sort of functional shot he can play in his sleep and probably does. Gohar held Gloucestershire together, bowling 32 overs on a pitch offering gentle first-day turn to finish with 4 for 59. They would have been bereft this season without him.Sibley imagined that Warwickshire, at 255 for 8, had a slight edge. He deserved that thought because he had to work hard for his runs, but Bristol pitches have a tendency to ease. Whether they ease in September remains to be seen.Sibley does not score hundreds as much as logs them away. It is surprising that he has not made more than 18; a surprise, too, that, he is only 27, because he seems to have been wearing down attacks for a long time. He was dropped off Tom Price on 14 at backward point by the substitute Dom Goodman, a ball that reared at him from a length and brought much discussion and pitch-tapping before the game could resume. As for Goodman, he made a hangdog departure after the over concluded.Dutiful airs are not really in vogue. As long as the Stokes / McCullum axis holds sway, he appears unlikely to add to his 17 Test caps. He is returning to Surrey at the end of the season to form an opening partnership with Rory Burns: two top-order batters wondering if England opportunities have passed then by. Perhaps London will get him noticed again.His immediate task is to save Warwickshire from relegation. Champions last season, they lie equal second bottom with Kent with two matches to go. In their final match, they play Hampshire. If Kent pull off a shock win at the Ageas Bowl then at least Hampshire may lose impetus in the final week. So many permutations.Victory against the bottom club, Gloucestershire, who are virtually relegated, is essential. At 138 for 6, they were in the mire before Danny Briggs, with an adventurous 68 in easing conditions, made far and away his top score of an unproductive summer. Briggs was dropped too, another expensive miss, this time by Jack Taylor at first slip off Ajeet Singh Dale.How has it come to this for Warwickshire? Perhaps they overachieved in 2021 when they won the Championship, playing a grinding style of cricket in which every player gave no quarter. In the midst of the Covid crisis, it was perhaps a serious mood for its time. They must adjust, too, to the departure after four years of their director of cricket, Paul Farbrace, at the end of the season. Olly Stone and Adam Hose are on their way too.Rob Yates, who made such an impact at the top of the order, is down on runs this season, but the most obvious difference has been in the bowling returns where Oliver Hannon-Dalby is again in credit, but this time with less support, particularly from the former Gloucestershire pair, Liam Norwell and Craig Miles, who have either been injured or out of form. They have won only once, against Essex at Edgbaston – and that was back in mid-April.We have reached the climax to the Championship with seven of the nine counties harbouring either title ambitions or relegation fears, the chance for the premier club competition in the country to reassert its significance in the fabric of English cricket, except that many think differently these days. The ECB, in its perpetual undermining of the competition over the past generation, has gradually done untold damage. Andrew Strauss will make a pronouncement on Wednesday about his high-performance review. There will doubtless be much talk about the need to serve England’s needs and very little about the need for holistic solutions. There is only one realm to be served these days and it has many foot soldiers.As September spreads itself, and the pitches seam once more, cricket writers of a certain vintage traditionally turn to Keats and trot out the reference to a season of mists and mellow fruitfulness. Quoting Keats’ extolling of autumn during a cost-of living crisis is highly inadvisable, liable only to bring a look of suspicion and advice to put another sweater on.But it was warm in Bristol and layers were being dispensed with. By the time Sibley had his first towel-down of the day, Warwickshire were two down. Yates, edging to first slip, and Alex Davies, driving an inswinger, both played with haste. By contrast, Sibley’ first boundary, a hunched on drive, was a study in circumspection, his tone set for the day. The approach was also adopted by Sam Hain, who managed only a single in his first 45 balls, deposited Singh Dale for his only boundary and fell in the following over (10 from 74 balls) as an inside-edge to short leg brought Gohar his first wicket.Sibley and Will Rhodes promised reconstruction. Sibley’s half-century was announced on the PA system in sonorous tones, but Rhodes fended the next ball, from Tom Price, to his brother Olly at second slip. Sonorous tones were heard again as he crossed the boundary rope and this time there appeared to be the merest undertone of celebration. Gloucestershire, still without a win, had known few days like this all season.But Gloucestershire, not for the first time this season, could not finish the job. Zafar removed Briggs with one that turned, which just left time for a comedic final wicket: Singh Dale, struck by cramp at the end of his run, stretched his left leg uncertainly, ran it gingerly and delivered a wide long hop which Henry Brookes cut straight to third man whereupon Singh Dale fell to the turf, exultant, for further treatment.