© CWI Media At the start of 2018, Jason Holder averaged 29.00 with the bat in Test cricket, and 38.52 with the ball. Those numbers fit the widespread perception of Holder at the time; a useful lower-order batsman and a useful medium-fast workhorse, but perhaps not good enough in either capacity to make a top Test team as a batsman or bowler alone. In five Tests this year, though, all…
1:27 AM ET Mohammad IsamESPN Bangladesh’s batsmen have only themselves to blame for their wretched performance in the two Tests against West Indies, according to Tamim Iqbal. He said that even when the pitch became easier for batting on the third day of the Jamaica Test, they couldn’t enter into a contest with the West Indies fast bowlers. Instead, Bangladesh collapsed to 168 all out in 42 overs as West…
12:05 AM ET Liam Brickhill Zimbabwe batsman Malcolm Waller has withdrawn from the team’s ODI squad citing, through correspondence between his lawyer and Zimbabwe Cricket, labour-practice concerns. Waller had been part of Zimbabwe’s squad for the T20 tri-series in Harare, playing in Zimbabwe’s last two games against Australia and Pakistan, and was also named in the squad for the ODIs against Pakistan. While Waller had not responded to a request…
3:28 PM ET MS Dhoni walked a single to third man to reach 10,000 ODI runs, but there was barely a clap heard at Lord’s even as the Indian dressing room sat glum. Not long after that, Dhoni was booed again as India’s run rate came to a virtual standstill in the final 10 overs after the chase of 323 completely fell apart. Boos and slow-hand claps rang across the…
3:00 AM ET West Indies 354 and 108 for 6 (Chase 23*, Dowrich 4*, Shakib 4-25) lead Bangladesh 149 by 313 runs Keemo Paul is stumped by Nurul Hasan AFP Bangladesh’s bowlers again kept them hanging in the contest, this time by reducing West Indies to 108 for 6 at lunch in their second innings. The home side still has a substantial 313-run lead after the first session on the third…
3:00 AM ET ECB Reporters Network Lancashire 157 for 8 (Livingstone 44, Davies 31) beat Derbyshire 145 for 7 (Madsen 34, MacLeod 30, Lester 4-25) by 12 runsScorecard Lancashire claimed a 12-run victory in a low-scoring Vitality Blast clash with Derbyshire at Emirates Old Trafford to register their third successive win in North Group The Lightning posted 157 for 8, with captain and opener Liam Livingstone’s 44 off 21 balls…
11:32 AM ET Get on top of the spinners before they get on top of you. So goes Dimuth Karunaratne‘s mantra, when playing on dusty tracks. Karunaratne hit 218 runs on his own on a Galle surface in which no other batsman could manage so much as a half-century. This was not even Karunaratne’s most impressive hundred in tough conditions – that would be last year’s second-innings 141 on an…
10:37 AM ET The visiting team outclassed in unfamiliar conditions, twice being dismissed for less than 200; the match – barely competitive – hurtling to a conclusion inside three days. The above could describe either of South Africa’s two most recent matches against Sri Lanka. In Johannesburg last year, a South Africa attack featuring four frontline quicks had scythed through Sri Lanka twice to record a victory of an innings…
9:32 AM ET South Africa let the opposition tailenders score too many runs, their own batsmen were too defensive against spin in the first innings and too aggressive in the second, and reverse swing did not play as big a role in the Test as they had expected. These were the gleanings of captain Faf du Plessis, after South Africa crashed to a 278-run loss in Galle inside three days….
8:52 AM ET George Dobell Leading England players look likely to be available to play in some games in English domestic cricket’s new tournament The 100. There had been fears that England’s best-known players – the likes of Ben Stokes, Jos Buttler and Joe Root – would be unavailable for the ECB’s flagship new tournament as they were likely to be on duty with the Test team. But ESPNcricinfo understands…