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The state’s winless run in the tournament has now extended to 14 matches but they will have Nathan Lyon against Victoria

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Oct-2023Former Test batter and New South Wales captain Kurtis Patterson has been dropped from their Sheffield Shield team for the match against Victoria after another winless start to the season.It is the second time this year that Patterson has been dropped after he was left out for the final game of last season when he was replaced as captain by Moises Henriques. Since last November Patterson has averaged just 14.92 in the Shield and has started this season with scores of 32, 4 and 10.Blake MacDonald, who made his first-class debut in the final game of last season against South Australia and scored 61, comes into the squad.Related

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New South Wales have not won a match in their last 14 Sheffield Shield outings stretching back to February 2022 but should have claimed the opening game of this season against Queensland only to be denied by Michael Neser and Jimmy Pierson.They were then comprehensively beaten by South Australia in Adelaide last week when they were bowled out for 183 and 136.However, in a boost for their hopes against Victoria at the MCG they will have Nathan Lyon available with the offspinner set to play his first four-day game of the season as he continues his comeback after the Ashes-ending calf injury.Lyon is due to play the match in Melbourne, followed by NSW’s two home games against Western Australia and Tasmania next month ahead of the Test summer which begins in mid-December.For Patterson, this latest omission continues a difficult few years after he had reached the Australia Test side against Sri Lanka during the 2018-19 season and scored a maiden century in Canberra.Since that season, where he hit three first-class centuries and another brace for a CA XI against Sri Lankans in Hobart which ultimately earned him his Test call, he has made three hundreds and averaged 27.19 in first-class cricket.New South Wales squad vs Victoria Jackson Bird, Ben Dwarshuis, Jack Edwards, Matthew Gilkes, Chris Green, Ryan Hackney, Moises Henriques (capt), Daniel Hughes, Nathan Lyon, Blake Macdonald, Jack Nisbet, Jason Sangha, Chris Tremain

South Africa’s towering left-arm quick talks about his upbringing and the hard yards to get to the top

Firdose Moonda23-Aug-2022Koos Jansen spotted the cricketing talent of his twin sons, Marco and Duan, when they were nine-years-old and ran with it. Much like Richard Williams, who masterminded Venus and Serena’s rise to being among the best players tennis has ever seen, Koos made it his mission to train and talk to his kids about the sport he believed they would excel in, becoming cricket’s equivalent of King Richard. Let’s call him King Koos.Like Williams, and in keeping with a few other famous cricketing dads, Koos Jansen wasn’t always gentle in his methods.”There have been some very tough times when my dad was very tough on us,” Marco Jansen, South Africa’s 22-year old tearaway, said. “There was no sugarcoating. Back then, he spoke to us in the same way he is speaking to us now. Nothing has changed. That enabled us to grow and mature a bit quicker than all the other kids when we were a bit young.Related

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“Since we were growing up, he is the one that has been – not the tough guy – but harder on us, especially when it comes to sport.” Koos demanded the best from his boys in other spheres too, such as academics. “But we weren’t that great,” Jansen said.By Jansen’s own admission, and despite some eye-watering numbers (164 and 80 respectively) in a T20 game for example, the pair were not stand-out youth players either. “My high school career didn’t go well. I wasn’t the top schoolboy cricketer,” Jansen said.Neither of he nor Duan played in an Under-19 World Cup and both made their names as net bowlers. In a professional era where the pathways are clearly laid out, and usually followed, theirs is the stuff of fairytales, which is why when Jansen made his Test debut, with only 18 first-class appearances to his name (and of those only half in South Africa’s top-tier of domestic cricket), he could barely believe his good fortune. “If you had told me you will make your debut against India in South Africa, I would have laughed and said, no, there’s no chance,” he said.There was an element of his selection which was about him being in the right place at the right time. South Africa were without Anrich Nortje for that India series and would have picked Duanne Olivier for the Boxing Day Test but he had not fully recovered from Covid-19 and was nursing a hamstring niggle. When Jansen’s name appeared on the team-sheet, it was a surprise and he found himself under scrutiny immediately.He was nervous and his first spell was wayward but he returned later in the match and showed off an ability to swing the ball at pace, to exploit any bounce and to challenge even the best. In India’s second innings, Jansen dismissed Mayank Agarwal, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane and Mohammed Siraj to finish his debut match with five wickets.He has since added KL Rahul – three times – Cheteshwar Pujara and most recently Joe Root to his list of wickets and continues to ask serious questions of marquee players. In Root’s case, Jansen struck him on the pad with a delivery that shaped in and the amount of movement on offer at Lord’s surprised Jansen himself. “I didn’t expect the ball to swing that much,” Jansen said. “The plan was to stick around that off stump or fourth stump area and let the ball pass through there. If it nips back then it brings all dismissals into play and if it just straightens, you can nick him off. When you get the big names out, it’s always a good feeling.”Duan (left) and Marco Jansen with Virat Kohli in the nets on India’s 2018 tour•Koos Jansen

The best, in fact. Though Jansen has an IPL deal and was among the players who opted out of the series against Bangladesh earlier in the year, he spoke of Test cricket as the highlight of becoming an international. “I enjoy the red-ball format. It’s the format where what you put in, you get out. If you bowl well, you will get wickets. If you bat well, you will score runs,” he said. “That’s what I have enjoyed the most. And just being around the guys, they make it [nice] to play the game.”As the youngest in the group, Jansen is soaking up the knowledge from players who are much more experienced than him, much like he did with his dad.”Like today, we had a long practice session, so then you chat to them and you ask all the nitty gritty stuff,” he said of South Africa’s preparations for the second Test at Old Trafford. “They help you think out of the box. And there’s the coaches as well. They bring a different perspective. There’s a lot of angles or perspectives you have at your disposal to try and figure out what you can do to give yourself the best chance to perform.”There’s also some advice about what not to do. Naturally, because of Jansen’s frame – he stands at 2.06 metres tall – there are concerns about overbowling him and injuries. He has already overcome what was turning into a stress fracture of the lower back. “I’ve had problems when I was 18 or 19 – a semi-stress fracture in the lower back. I have grown a lot quicker for my body to adjust to my muscles and all those kinds of stuff.”To try to prevent future issues, he has to work specifically on his lower body and abdominal area. “My core has to be strong. My glutes, my lower body have to be very strong because that’s where most of my loads go. Because I twist a lot, if my core muscles are quite strong, then I have a base to work from.”That’s how Jansen’s entire career has been. He has the foundations laid by his family (and he wants you to know that Koos was also always there for “a bit of love and a bit of softness”) and he built on those by almost immediately joining the best cricketers in the country and turning out regularly for them. And it’s not just any international team.After the last year South Africa have had in Tests, and their performance at Lord’s, there’s already talk this pace pack could become one of the best going around. Asked if he thought the South Africa attack was as good as it could be, Jansen checked himself. “I wouldn’t say we are unbeatable. We put in the hard yards and we are still putting in the hard yards,” he said. “We don’t take anything for granted because we know when we do that, Mother Cricket is going to kick you on the backside.”Or make that, Papa (King) Koos.

New Zealand had given themselves a platform at 159 for 2 in the 38th over but the borderline stumping of Amelia Kerr set in motion a collapse of 8 for 53

Andrew McGlashan04-Apr-2021Australia secured a world-record 22nd ODI win in a row with a powerful batting display in Mount Maunganui as half-centuries from Alyssa Healy, Ellyse Perry and Ash Gardner carried them to victory with more than 11 overs to spare.The match was finished, and record secured, when Gardner pulled her third six which also brought up 41-ball half-century. Perry had anchored the innings after the early losses of Rachael Haynes and Meg Lanning briefly suggested New Zealand might find a way back into the game.After a watchful start Healy, one of four players to appear in all 22 victories, took the chase by the scruff of the neck with her first major innings of the tour. However, at 136 for 4 the game wasn’t entirely secure, but any notion of it being a problem was quickly dispelled as Gardner found her range, much as she had in the first T20I, and dominated an unbroken stand of 79 with Perry.Earlier, New Zealand had given themselves a platform at 159 for 2 in the 38th over but the borderline stumping of Amelia Kerr set in motion a collapse of 8 for 53. Lauren Down, recalled to the team for the series, made a career-best 90 but the tempo at the top of the order left too much pressure on others to accelerate. Megan Schutt and Nicola Carey shared seven wickets between them.Schutt had struck with her first delivery of the day when a wicked inswinger snaked between Hayley Jensen’s bat and pad to take leg stump. It was slow going in the opening exchanges with Down taking 19 balls to get off the mark but a second-wicket stand of 69 with Amy Satterthwaite gave a foundation.After Satterthwaite lofted to mid-on – Lanning kept fielders inside the ring as long as possible to build pressure – Down and Amelia Kerr added 90 in an 18-over stand that occasionally threatened to break free against a disciplined Australia attack.The Australia squad after their world record 22nd ODI win in a row•Getty Images

Tayla Vlaeminck, whose first four overs cost just four, had 21 taken off a two-over comeback spell while legspinner Georgia Wareham went for a run-a-ball. Down, who had scored 75 runs in her previous 10 ODI innings, reached a maiden fifty off 90 balls.However, the innings lost its way when Amelia Kerr was given out stumped off Schutt – it was a very tight decision by the third umpire and from the replays broadcast hard to say it was clearly out. With the innings having been built at a largely sedate pace, the remaining batters had little time to play themselves in and the pressure told. Katey Martin was run out from cover and Down’s innings ended with a leading edge back to Carey whose wicket-to-wicket medium pace was tough to score off.Maddy Green and Brooke Halliday both managed sixes to suggest they could provide the late power but fell shortly after each of their boundaries.The first over of the chase from Jess Kerr cost 11 but she and Rosemary Mair tightened their lines and were rewarded when Haynes chased a drive in the seventh over. New Zealand were then buoyant when Lanning, who has a phenomenal record chasing and an even more so at this ground, edged Hannah Rowe to the keeper to leave Australia 37 for 2.Healy had reached 25 off 38 balls when she upped the tempo with a six over midwicket after Perry had eased into her innings with consecutive boundaries off the returning Lea Tahuhu. Healy was dropped on 46 – by Tahuhu long-on – with the resulting six bringing up her fifty from 57 deliveries and another life came her way on 61 when Jensen missed a low return catch.Next over, though, she got a leading edge back to Amelia Kerr and when Satterthwaite lured Beth Mooney into driving to cover there was just a glimmer for New Zealand if they could strike again.But Australia’s batting order oozes confidence and Gardner stamped her authority on the chase with two early boundaries against Amelia Kerr who she had also targeted in the first T20I. As her innings progressed she added off-side sixes against Mair and Tahuhu while Perry ticked over to a 73-ball fifty to show her batting is in fine fettle.The job, though, for this tour is not yet finished with the Rose Bowl series – which Australia have held since 2000 – still up for grabs. It would be a brave person to suggest that task won’t be completed in the second game by a side that has taken the one-day game to a new level.

Cameron Green’s 87 help Western Australia stretch to a competitive first-innings score

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Nov-2019Usman Khawaja gave himself the chance to press his Test claims by grinding out a platform for Queensland with the help of Joe Burns and Bryce Street on day two of the Sheffield Shield match against Western Australia at the Gabba.After Western Australia were able to stretch their first innings as far as 332, due largely to an industrious unbeaten innings of 87 not out by the emerging allrounder Cameron Green, Queensland dug in to reach 1 for 167 as Street dropped anchor.Burns was by the far the most enterprising of the three home batsmen on show, gliding to 76 from 119 balls before he was lbw to a ball of very full length to Green that looked to be going on to hit middle and leg stump.From there Khawaja and Street scrounged their way through another 31 overs for 67 runs, taking Queensland more than halfway towards the Western Australia total without ever being able to assert themselves against Green, Jhye Richardson, Matthew Kelly or David Moody.Following Travis Head’s century against New South Wales at Adelaide Oval and the strong early season performances of Marcus Harris and Will Pucovski, Khawaja needs a score of note to keep his name in the forefront of the selectors’ minds despite a brilliant recent record batting in Test matches in Australia.

The Australia opener went out of the side as his form dropped, but he was back – and running on energy drinks – as the ball-tampering saga dramatically flared up

Adam Collins05-Oct-2018At the beginning of the 2017-18 summer, Matt Renshaw endured the first truly horrid run of his professional career: a stretch of six Sheffield Shield innings worth 70 runs that got him dropped from Australia’s Test team. Four months later, when the ball-tampering scandal broke in Cape Town, he raced from a Shield final to a Test in Johannesburg, jacking himself up on Red Bull to open the batting in the Bull Ring.Renshaw is now in the UAE with the Test side, under new coach Justin Langer, having had a productive stint with Somerset in the County Championship (tallying three centuries and 513 runs in six matches).But on the morning of March 25, in Brisbane, Renshaw woke to see his cousin (and housemate) sitting stunned on the couch. “Have you seen what has happened,” his cousin asked. Renshaw joined him on the couch to watch the ball-tampering footage from Newlands. Then he went to play day three of the Shield final.”Pat Howard was at the ground and talking to all the coaches,” Renshaw recalls, while watching Alastair Cook bat for Essex at Chelmsford. “Then Wade Seccombe pulled me aside and said, ‘You might need to prepare to go to South Africa’. He didn’t have anything for me apart from that and I was like ‘but we’re playing the Shield Final, it is pretty serious.’ And he said that I had to be prepared to go over.”Two days later, he was waking to a call from Trevor Hohns, Australia’s chairman of selectors, confirming that hunch.”He said that I needed to get on a plane.” Renshaw helped Queensland win the title before he had to depart that afternoon, without a clue what was waiting for him at the other side. Sure enough, it was cricket’s version of the twilight zone, Bancroft still with his team-mates, readying himself to fly to the mayhem at home.”I was like, ‘geez, this is full on,'” Renshaw says. “I just didn’t know what to say.”Then while heading to the Wanderers for his one training run the day before dusting off his baggy green, an unusual edict came through. “We were getting off the bus and the security manager told us to hand our phones in. We had never handed our phones in before.”When Lehmann entered the dressing room, it was with red eyes. “I was sitting in the corner trying to work out what was going on. As he said [that he was resigning], people started breaking down. I just didn’t know how to feel because I had been out of the side for six months. I was just confused. And obviously, I was pretty upset; Boof was my coach when I was first picked and he has done so much for my cricket but because I was away from that side it was quite a challenging position to be in.”Did it cross his mind that in another world he could have been the Bancroft character in this sorry story? “Yeah, I have thought about it,” Renshaw replies. “If [David Warner] comes up to you and tells you to try and do this – I don’t know if you should be put in that scenario, but you never know what is going on behind closed doors and what they were trying to do, which is quite a tough thing to think about – how I would have reacted? But you never knew until you are pushed in that scenario.”Renshaw says that Warner “occasionally” gave him a hard time, but he chalks that up to familiarity between the pair.”When I was in the side, the times I would be cheeky, he’d pull me up. It was good for me at the time learning about when to do things, and certain scenarios, with batting especially. But when we’re out in the middle we work really well together. I think he potentially sees a little bit of me in him. Hopefully, I can learn from a few things that have happened in his life and when to bring that cheeky side out. There might have been times when I have brought it out at the wrong time.”Renshaw had been playing golf in a group that included Warner the day he realised he wouldn’t be making his Ashes debut last November.During Renshaw’s slump in form – in hindsight, he understands that he honed his survival mechanisms so well it came at the expense of his intent to score – Lehmann asked him to travel to the National Cricket Centre in Brisbane to face Australia’s first-choice attack ahead of selection.”I got through that without getting out and felt really confident and it had given me a second wind, so I thought I was going to be fine and going into the Test series feeling pretty good,” Renshaw says. “Getting dropped after that was quite confusing as I had gone and batted in front of them. I was batting really well and had some sense of hope.”Renshaw’s slump coincided with Bancroft’s glittering form, meaning the two were pitted in a virtual race to open alongside Warner. This was highlighted by Langer, then West Australia’s coach, who publicly backed his man, Bancroft.Renshaw is at peace with what happened. “The only way [Bancroft] was going to be play was if I got dropped, so he [Langer] wants his players to get picked and that’s completely understandable. I went and spent some time with [Langer] a couple of times while they were [in England] for the ODIs to get to know him, hopefully before a fruitful Test campaign. It is just about getting to know him as a person.”But it was also the WA side that gave Renshaw a hard time after he lost his Test spot, in the Shield fixture at the WACA played as the Ashes began in Brisbane. “They were chirping,” Renshaw smiles. “That was when I was wondering if I was really enjoying the cricket I was playing at the time because I wasn’t doing well and thinking too much about the game.”It took an unplanned T20 stint with Brisbane Heat in the BBL for Renshaw (he played only one match) to feel at peace with the game again. In turn, he started scoring in the Shield again after Christmas, making him the obvious man to fly into the Test side when Bancroft was banned. Fuelled with energy drinks, he threw himself around the Wanderers outfield in a sign to onlookers that he, for one, would not be going through the motions.”I knew my role over there was to provide loads of energy. I knew if I could bring that into the field and the dressing room, it would relax a lot of people who had been over there two months by then and all that happened before was mentally draining. Going into that final Test, I think we were just trying to get back to where we were before and trying to win back the Australian public.”To the extent that exhaustion informed the Cape Town saga, Renshaw is not able to judge from the distance he was at when the wheels fell off. He did, however, detect a shift between what he was seeing on television through the marathon summer compared to what the emphasis had been inside the camp a year earlier during another taxing series, for the Border-Gavaskar Trophy.”When we were playing in India, it was a bit fiery, but in every meeting we discussed playing on skill and not emotion. That’s one thing I learned from that tour: trying to be the better team without letting our emotions get the better of us because if we do that then our skills will drop. Seeing a few of the things that happened when I was out of the side, I thought, ‘Are they still going on that? The ‘skill not emotion’ mantra? But you just don’t know because you are not in the side.”It will be a different Australian side that takes the field in Dubai on Sunday, just as it will be a different Renshaw. He asserted himself markedly for Somerset, finding the sort of balance between defence and attack that has seen him compared favourably to another Australian opening batsman from Queensland – Matthew Hayden.He received an untimely knock to the helmet when fielding at short leg in Australia’s warm-up match against a Pakistan A side in Dubai last week and there are questions over whether he will be fit enough or prepared enough to open in the Tests, but after his struggles last summer and the extraordinary turn of events that took him to Johannesburg, Renshaw is better prepared for what lies ahead.

Offspinner Ashley Nurse has made a comeback into the West Indies T20 squad after more than two years

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Sep-2017After more than two years out of the side, offspinner Ashley Nurse has made a comeback into the West Indies T20 squad. The 28-year old last played a T20 international in January 2015, but has been picked for the one-off game against England later this month, in place of legspinner Samuel Badree, who was unavailable due to a prior commitment. West Indies retained the other 12 players that featured in the squad for the home T20I against India in July.

West Indies T20 squad changes

IN: Ashley Nurse
OUT: Samuel Badree
Squad: Carlos Brathwaite (captain), Ronsford Beaton, Chris Gayle, Evin Lewis, Jason Mohammed, Sunil Narine, Ashley Nurse, Kieron Pollard, Rovman Powell, Marlon Samuels, Jerome Taylor, Chadwick Walton (wk), Kesrick Williams

Nurse has so far gone wicketless in the four T20 internationals he has played since his debut in April 2011 but has been one of the main bowlers for Barbados in List A matches. He was the leading wicket-taker in their domestic 50-over competition last season. Recently, however, he hasn’t been as impressive, going wicketless for Trinbago Knight Riders in the two CPL matches he has played.”We have a good mix of experience and youth that should adapt to English conditions quickly,” chairman of selectors, Courtney Browne said. “Coming off the series win against India in the Caribbean in July our expectations is to see the team play a highly competitive game and bring that T20 Caribbean atmosphere to England.”The experience Browne talks about includes the likes of Chris Gayle, Sunil Narine, Kieron Pollard, Marlon Samuels and Jerome Taylor. And leading the younger players is opening batsman Evin Lewis, who scored a 53-ball hundred against India less than two months ago.The only T20 between England and West Indies will take place on September 16 in Chester-le-Street, before a five-match ODI series starts on September 19 at Old Trafford.

Sophie Ecclestone, the uncapped Lancashire left-arm spinner, has been named in England Women’s 15-member squad for the three-match T20 series at home against Pakistan

ESPNcricinfo staff01-Jul-2016Sophie Ecclestone, the uncapped Lancashire left-arm spinner, has been named in England Women’s 15-member squad for the three-match T20 series at home against Pakistan. Her Lancashire team-mate, Kate Cross, however, was left out. Kent left-arm seamer Natasha Farrant, who was not picked for World T20 as well as the ODI series against Pakistan, replaced the injured Anya Shrubsole.Ecclestone and Farrant are the two changes to the squad that swept Pakistan 3-0 in the ODI series. Ecclestone, only 17, is the second left-arm spinner in the squad behind Alexandra Hartley, who made her international debut against Pakistan in the third ODI in Taunton. She is yet to play a T20 international.

England Women’s squad for Pakistan T20s

Heather Knight (capt), Tammy Beaumont, Katherine Brunt, Sophie Ecclestone, Natasha Farrant, Georgia Elwiss, Jenny Gunn, Alexandra Hartley, Danielle Hazell, Amy Jones (wk), Laura Marsh, Natalie Sciver, Fran Wilson, Lauren Winfield, Danielle Wyatt

“The T20 series brings a new set of challenges and further opportunities for the players, and I’m really pleased to call-up Sophie Ecclestone for the first time, and to welcome Tash Farrant back into the dressing room,” Mark Robinson, the head coach, said.”Sophie brings youth, vitality and another left-arm spin option alongside Alex Hartley into the squad. We have two world-class offspinners in Danielle Hazell and Laura Marsh, but we also need to be aware of the talent that we have underneath, and making sure that we are developing the likes of Alex and Sophie, by having them in the group and giving them international match-day experience.”Robinson said that it was a “real shame” that seamer Beth Langston missed on of selection again, because of injury. “She worked tremendously hard during the winter and had a great tour to Sri Lanka with the England Women’s Academy, but unfortunately hasn’t been able to get involved so far this summer because of her ankle,” he said.Robinson also said that Cross was still in the side’s plans, despite being overlooked for the Pakistan T20 series. “Kate Cross has been left out of this squad to face Pakistan, but we do see her as a Twenty20 bowler moving forwards,” he said. “There is no reason why she can’t be an outstanding bowler across all formats of the game, and we feel that there’s a window now where we can do some focused technical work with her away from match situations to help get her ready to perform at her best in the Kia Super League next month.”The T20 series begins with the first match at the Brightside Ground in Bristol on Sunday.

Michael Carberry may have been disappointed to depart for 67 but his contribution added significantly to a frustrating day for the Division One leaders, Middlesex

David Lloyd at the Ageas Bowl17-May-2015
ScorecardMichael Carberry struck his fourth half-century of the season•Getty Images

Of Alastair Cook’s three former Test opening partners on view in this match, Michael Carberry is surely the least likely to add to his small collection of caps – and some would argue that Sam Robson and Nick Compton are no more than long shots themselves.Be that as it may, but Carberry has seldom been anything other than a mainstay of Hampshire’s batting line-up, in all forms of the game, and their hopes of avoiding a desperate relegation fight on their return to the Championship’s top division may well depend on the now 34-year-old’s weight of runs.Carberry, happily settled into the No. 3 slot these days, has passed 50 in four of Hampshire’s five games to date. And while he has neither made it to three figures as yet nor been able to orchestrate a victory, his solid form should be of comfort to the south-coast club as they seek to establish a foothold.The left-hander certainly did not let them down on this occasion. And while he will have been disappointed to depart for 67 – after three-and-a-quarter hours of graft and shortly before the second new ball became available – his contribution added significantly to a frustrating day for the Division One leaders.Middlesex have not played a Championship match at this venue since 2006 so just might have read more into a dry, well-grassed pitch than the hosts (who would have batted had the coin come down in their favour). But while the scoreline perhaps indicated that bowling first was a mistake, there was enough happening all day – and especially before lunch – to support the decision of new captain James Franklin.The visitors were not as disciplined as they should have been with the first new ball, conceding a stack of extras and failing to hit consistent lines and lengths. But, that said, the outside edge was still beaten on a good many occasions – and Hampshire’s top three of Jimmy Adams, Liam Dawson and Carberry defended well when necessary while missing few opportunities to put away the bad delivery.Adams and Dawson possibly had to pinch themselves when looking at a scoreboard reading 85 for 0 from 21 overs. Steven Finn, bowling a full length most of the time, might have had two or three wickets on another morning but neither Toby Roland-Jones nor James Harris hit their straps – with Harris especially wayward despite starting this contest with 29 Championship wickets to his credit.The longer the morning went on wicketless, the more Middlesex rued an early run-out chance when Roland-Jones missed the target from mid-off after non-striker Adams, on 5, had been belatedly sent back by Dawson.In the end, it was medium-pacer Neil Dexter who came to the aid of Franklin, who has taken over the captaincy from Australia’s Caribbean-bound Adam Voges. Having played nicely, Dawson pushed at an away-swinger to edge a catch behind.Still, if Middlesex thought that would be the start of something big then the old firm of Adams and Carberry put them right with a stand of 75. Runs came steadily, apart from when Finn tried his luck around the wicket to Carberry and was cut, cover driven and angled away past backward point for three fours in an over.Adams’ hopes of a century just a few days after the birth of his second son ended when he deflected a Harris yorker into his stumps and James Vince gifted spinner Ollie Rayner his wicket by hoisting a drive to deepish mid-on.It was the departure of Carberry, though, that came as the biggest surprise because he looked set to make a day of it before failing to defend securely on the back foot against Harris. That was a nasty blow for Hampshire but Will Smith hit back sensibly to make an unbeaten half-century and guarantee the hosts first-day honours.

Steven Finn is unlikely to play in the first Test against India having missed practice on Tuesday

George Dobell in Ahmedabad13-Nov-2012Steven Finn is unlikely to play in the first Test against India having missed practice on Tuesday. The England fast bowler was forced off the pitch after four overs of the first warm-up game of the tour against India A and was subsequently diagnosed with a thigh strain. Stuart Broad also missed the third warm-up game with a bruised heel.While Finn and Broad bowled with impressive pace at practice on Sunday, it seems the England management were unwilling to risk two bowlers in the same Test. Finn barely participated in fielding practice and did not bowl a single delivery in the nets. While he is not thought to have suffered any injury setback, it seems the England management are keen not to risk his recovery; particularly in a Test that will be played in hot, arduous conditions.Broad, however, bowled several spells at full pace in practice on Tuesday and appears certain to play. While it is possible that England are attempting to steal a march on India and are simply keeping Finn under wraps – Graeme Swann is the latest spinner to claim he has a mystery delivery – that would be unlike them.”The one thing you would say is, if there was a realistic chance of Finn playing, then he probably would have had a long bowl today,” England wicketkeeper Matt Prior said after practise.Finn’s absence is likely to mean a recall for Tim Bresnan. Bresnan bowled increasingly well in the final warm-up game and, with his ability to reverse swing the ball and bat at No.8, England are set to prefer him to the spin option of Monty Panesar.It could mean there is no place for Panesar. Samit Patel’s good form with the bat and his ability to fill the role of a defensive second spinner will see him come into the side at No.6 as England, with a mind to the balance of the side, ensure they bat deep. Panesar’s modest batting continues to count against him.

Ijaz Butt will continue in his role as the PCB’s chairman until Pakistan’s President Asif Ali Zardari decides on whether to extend his tenure

Umar Farooq08-Oct-2011Ijaz Butt will continue in his role as the PCB’s chairman until Pakistan’s president Asif Ali Zardari, who is also the Patron of the board, decides on whether to extend his tenure. The matter is under consideration at the moment, and till a decision is arrived at, the incumbent will continue in office.Butt, whose constitutional three-year tenure ended today, left for Dubai to attend the ICC’s executive board meeting, putting to an end speculation of an immediate removal. “The matter of the extension of his tenure is under consideration,” the president’s spokesman Farhatullah Babar told ESPNcricinfo. “As per the normal practice in our governmental system, anyone whose tenure ends can carry on with [the president’s] consent.”So, while the case of his extension is being considered, he can work.”Butt took over from Nasim Ashraf on October 8, 2008 and, unlike several of his predecessors, completed his tenure – in the previous decade and a half Tauqir Zia, Shahryar Khan and Ashraf all had to step down before their tenure ran out.His tenure, though, has been plagued with controversies, including the armed attack on the Sri Lanka team in Lahore that resulted in Pakistan being denied the chance to co-host the 2011 World Cup, the spot-fixing scandal (and the problems with the ECB in its aftermath when Butt made controversial accusations against the England team), Zulqarnain Haider’s fleeing to the UK mid-way through a tour after receiving threats from bookies and, most recently, a much-publicised clash with Shahid Afridi.Pakistan’s on-field results in the same period though were commendable, the highlights being the team’s triumph in the World Twenty20 in England in 2009, the semi-final finish in the 2011 World Cup and a successful tour of New Zealand.