Month: July 2022

Birmingham 238 for 5 (Stirling 81, Mousley 63*) beat Yorkshire 207 (Lyth 69, Brathwaite 3-32) by 31 runs Yorkshire must avoid defeat against Leicestershire at Grace Road on Sunday to beat them to a quarter-final berth in the Blast after producing what surely ranked as their most slipshod bowling performance of the season in the face of a domineering Birmingham Bears at Headingley. They could finish anything from second to…

Leicestershire 214 for 6 (Ackermann 85) beat Northamptonshire 213 for 7 (Lynn 68, Cobb 53, Neesham 51, Parkinson 2-34) by one run In dramatic circumstances, Leicestershire Foxes prevailed over the Northamptonshire Steelbacks by one run to pull off the win they needed to keep alive their chance of snatching a quarter-final place in the Vitality Blast. After winning their last four fixtures, the Foxes can qualify with a victory in…

Hampshire 140 for 7 (Fuller 45, Smith 2-18) beat Gloucestershire 125 (Bracey 38, Dawson 2-16) by 15 runs James Fuller‘s quickfire 45 and impeccable bowling from Liam Dawson and Nathan Ellis fired Hampshire into the Vitality Blast quarter-finals at the expense of Gloucestershire. Allrounder Fuller needed only 24 balls to smack his haul at the death to drag Hampshire to an above-par 140. Gloucestershire, who needed to win to keep…

Nottinghamshire 184 for 6 (Duckett 53*, Clarke 51) beat Durham 183 for 8 by four wickets Nottinghamshire Outlaws’ last desperate hopes of a seventh successive T20 quarter-final berth finally vanished despite a comfortable victory over Durham Jets by four wickets in the Vitality Blast at Trent Bridge. Amongst other things, they needed a tie, no less, in Leicester to retain any hope but Leicester just refused to oblige. It was…

Surrey 195 for 6 (Roy 58, Curran 50, Qais 3-28) beat Kent 191 for 5 (Cox 54, Blake 50*) by four wickets Surrey, long-time leaders of the Vitality Blast’s South Group, clinched a home quarter-final by beating Kent Spitfires by four wickets with Jason Roy‘s 27-ball 58 and Sam Curran‘s 30-ball 50 leading a spectacular chase in a high-scoring affair. A full house crowd of 30,000 at the Kia Oval…

Somerset 161 for 8 (Banton 39, Behrendorff 3-30) beat Middlesex 160 for 6 (C Green 44*, B Green 3-38) by two wickets Josh Davey returned to haunt his former team-mates as Somerset beat Middlesex by two wickets in a Vitality Blast thriller at Lord’s to qualify for the quarter-finals. Davey, who began his career at the home of cricket before heading south-west, took 1 for 25 from four frugal overs…

Worcestershire 178 for 6 (Wells 2-26) beat Lancashire 149 (Salt 44, D’Oliveira 4-20) by 29 runs Jos Buttler suffered disappointment in his first match since being appointed England’s new white-ball captain after an astonishing Lancashire Lightning batting collapse in a 29-run defeat against bottom-placed Worcestershire Rapids at New Road. Eoin Morgan’s replacement was dropped before he had scored but then smashed 42 off 29 balls with three sixes and two…

Principles don’t really become your principles just like that. You don’t just get to walk into a shop and pick a principle off the shelf, plug in and press play. It needs to scoped, whittled, and honed before it is in any fit shape to be a foundation of your ethos. Above all else, it needs to be robustly tested, even knocked around a bit to see if it can…

India (Pant 146, Jadeja 83*, Anderson 3-52, Potts 2-85) vs England Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell may have left the UK, but the narrative arc they established during New Zealand’s just-concluded Test tour continues to define the 2022 English summer. From the despair of 98 for 5, India roared back through the sixth-wicket heroics of Rishabh Pant and Ravindra Jadeja, who put on 222 off just 239 balls. On a…

On Thursday afternoon, Richard Gleeson saw a WhatsApp notification pop up on his phone. Matthew Mott, England’s white-ball coach, had sent him a message saying, “I’m going to give you a ring.” Gleeson turned to his wife, Laura, and said, in a state of shock: “I think I’m about to get picked for England.” He was right. Gleeson, an uncapped 34-year-old seamer, has been named in England’s 14-man T20I squad…