Month: July 2019

12:34 AM ET The method of Afghanistan A’s dominance of their hosts Bangladesh has surprised selector Habibul Bashar, who said that their brand of cricket has been more patient. Currently, Afghanistan lead the five-match one-day series 2-0 after their four-wicket win in Chattogram on Sunday, having already won the two-match four-day series 1-0. Bashar said that he was impressed by the way they played mostly cricketing shots during their tricky…

3:00 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff India A 237 for 2 (Gaikwad 99, Gill 69, Iyer 61*) beat West Indies A 236 (Rutherford 65, Ambris 61 (Saini 2-31, Deepak Chahar 2-39, Rahul Chahar 2-53) by eight wickets Brisk fifties from the in-form trio of Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill and Shreyas Iyer led India A to an eight-wicket win over West Indies A in the fifth and final unofficial ODI in Antigua….

4:00 PM ET Australia are coached by a former batsman in Justin Langer who had to have a doorway physically blocked by his captain Ricky Ponting in order to prevent him re-entering the field after a serious blow to the head. In a famous episode, Langer was barred from coming out to bat at the end of a thrilling fourth innings chase against South Africa at the Wanderers in 2006,…

3:00 AM ET ECB Reporters Network Gloucestershire 339 for 7 (Smith 79*, Higgins 76, Dent 58) v Worcestershire Ryan Higgins smacked 13 fours in a sparkling 76 to delight a 2,500-strong Cheltenham Festival crowd on the opening day of Gloucestershire’s County Championship Division Two match with Worcestershire. And, with Tom Smith hitting an unbeaten 79, the hosts could feel well satisfied with a first-innings total of 339 for 7. Chris…

3:00 AM ET ECB Reporters Network Birmingham 117 for 3 (Agar 41*) beat Leicestershire 115 for 9 (Edwards 4-22) by seven wickets Fidel Edwards made one of the most spectacular starts in Vitality Blast memory to set Birmingham Bears motoring to a seven-wicket victory over Leicestershire in front of a bumper crowd at Edgbaston. The West Indian paceman, making his debut on loan from Hampshire, took wickets with his first,…

3:00 AM ET Lancashire 189 for 3 (Croft 65* Maxwell 58) beat Durham 117 (Steel 58) by 72 runs It turns out that Glenn Maxwell, as far away from a synthetic cricketer as it is possible to get, just needed an artificial pitch to put his English summer to rights. Well, not an artificial pitch exactly, a hybrid pitch, used for the first time in English county cricket by Lancashire…

3:00 AM ET ECB Reporters Network Kent 146 for 8 (Blake 57*) beat Hampshire 145 for 5 (Vince 51) by two wickets Alex Blake dragged Kent Spitfires to an incredible two-wicket Vitality Blast victory over Hampshire to replicate his 2015 heroics. Big-hitting Blake powered 57 off 38 balls to maintain the Spitfires’ 100 per cent record in the competition, having come to the crease with his side in dire straits….

Jul 19, 2019 England Women 199 for 6 (Jones 64, Sciver 62*) trail Australia Women 420 for 9 dec (Mooney 51) by 221 runs Maiden Test fifties from Amy Jones and Nat Sciver staved off the threat of England being run through on the third afternoon in Taunton, but the prospect of Australia retaining the Ashes just past the midpoint of the series moved a step closer to reality. Needing…

12:09 PM ET Peter Della PennaCricket Close Peter Della Penna is an American cricket journalist who also writes for ESPNcricinfo.com and DreamCricket.com. Since 2010, he has penned the USA entry in the Cricket Round the World section of the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack.Follow Peter on Twitter @PeterDellaPenna The USA men’s national team players are starting to reap the rewards of gaining ODI status, with a total of 17 players awarded central contracts through…

11:28 AM ET ESPNcricinfo staff Australia’s Test captain Tim Paine believes that the Newlands scandal and its aftermath served to end what had been a rapidly escalating arms race among international teams in finding methods for ever more rapid and frequent reverse swing – a race that resulted in heavy penalties for Steven Smith, David Warner and Cameron Bancroft when caught in the act. In a frank admission ahead of…