Month: July 2018

2:06 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff The Lankan Premier League (LPL) will be scrapped this year, effectively because no functional board exists at SLC to organise the tournament. Russel Arnold, the tournament director, is understood to have had little support or direction from the few administrators remaining at SLC, over the past few weeks. He announced on Twitter that the LPL was “postponed”. The tournament was due to begin mid-August. Hi…

3:00 AM ET George Dobell Middlesex 161 for 7 (Stirling 66, Cartwright 38) beat Surrey 158 for 6 (Clarke 50, Stirling 3-26) by three wicketsScorecard Middlesex survived a dramatic mid-innings collapse to open their Blast campaign with a win against local rivals Surrey. Apparently cruising to victory at 88 for 1, Middlesex lost four wickets from the next seven deliveries to leave the game wide open. Had Morne Morkel, at…

3:00 AM ET ECB Reporters Network Worcestershire 190 for 5 (Clarke 42, Ferguson 35, D’Oliveira 37*) beat Lancashire 188 for 6 (Jennings 50, Livingstone 35) by five wicketsScorecard Worcestershire Rapids got their 2018 Vitality Blast campaign off to a fine start with a five-wicket victory over Lancashire Lightning at Emirates Old Trafford. Needing 189 to take the points, the Rapids won with only one ball to spare when Ed Barnard…

3:00 AM ET ECB Reporters Network Yorkshire 200 for 3 (Lyth 92*, Tattersall 53*, Brook 44) beat Durham 156 for 4 (Stokes 90*, Brookes 3-21) by 44 runsScorecard Yorkshire comfortably defended a 201 target against a Ben Stokes boosted Durham side at Emerald Headingley to make a winning start to this summer’s Vitality Blast. England all-rounder Stokes opened the batting in the chase and hit 90 not out off 68…

1:15 PM ET David Willey has questioned the tactics of India’s bowlers repeatedly pulling out of their delivery stride during the first T20I at Old Trafford. Kuldeep Yadav did it at least twice against Jos Buttler and then Bhuvneshwar Kumar followed with the final ball of the innings to Willey. It led to a sharp exchange of words between Bhuvneshwar and Willey with the England allrounder saying he did not…

12:57 PM ET George Dobell The ECB has confirmed the cancellation of their pace programme and overseas placements. With budgets strained – not least by set-up costs for the new tournament, currently The Hundred – a review of funding was undertaken and the two areas identified as most expendable. The pace programme, which has seen the most promising fast bowlers in domestic cricket given specialist coaching and opportunities to develop,…

12:50 PM ET The Pride in London parade will attract support from an unexpected source this weekend when the England and Wales Cricket Board becomes the first national sports governing body to take part independently in the march. Around one million partygoers are expected to assemble in London to celebrate the diversity of the LGBT+ community – and this year a small group of ECB employees will be march under…

12:13 PM ET George Dobell Stuart Broad will return to competitive cricket on July 22 in a bid to prove his fitness ahead of the Test series against India. Broad was forced off the pitch during Nottinghamshire’s Championship match against Worcestershire last week after experiencing pain in his left ankle. He has subsequently had several scans – none of which are understood to have shown a major problem – and…