England will hand debuts to the Surrey duo of Gus Atkinson and Jamie Smith for the first Test against West Indies at Lord’s, which begins on Wednesday. Chris Woakes also returns to the XI, his first Test appearance since being named player of the series in last summer’s Ashes, while offspinner Shoaib Bashir makes his home debut after three Tests in India at the start of the year. Atkinson, who…
Jason Holder says that his experience of looking on from afar as West Indies sealed their thrilling eight-run victory over Australia at the Gabba in January has given him “renewed energy” to pick up where he left off, as he prepares to face England at Lord’s in his first Test for almost a year. Holder, 32, was one of the notable omissions when West Indies chose to send a weakened…
James Anderson says he is “at peace” with his impending retirement from Test cricket, despite admitting that he didn’t have much say in the decision and feeling that he is “still bowling as well as I ever have”. Anderson will play his 188th and final Test against West Indies at Lord’s this week, having been told by the England management at the start of the season that they were planning…
Sanath Jayasuriya, the former Sri Lanka captain, will be their interim head coach through a home limited-overs series against India and an away Test tour in England, which ends mid-September. He has not previously held a high-profile coaching position, but has been Sri Lanka men’s chief selector as well as cricket consultant for Sri Lanka Cricket – the role he holds at present. This decision from the board comes in…
David Bedingham, Dane Paterson and Dane Piedt are the only players from South Africa’s makeshift squad that toured New Zealand in February to be named for their next red-ball assignment, against West Indies in August. While Bedingham is seen as central to the future of South Africa’s long-format batting, Paterson, 35, has been included to add experience in the absence of Anrich Nortje and Marco Jansen, and Piedt, 34, to…
Surrey 103 for 5 (Evans 25, Stewart 2-24) beat Kent 81 for 3 (Khushi 35, Topley 2-27) by 5 runs DLS South Group leaders Surrey held their nerve in a tense finish to beat Kent Spitfires by five runs in a rain-shortened Vitality Blast contest at the Kia Oval. Surrey, put in and with an unfamiliar batting line-up, did well to reach 103 for 5 from 10 overs after play…
Johnny Grave, the chief executive of Cricket West Indies, hopes that memories of the team’s bio-secure tour of England in 2020 will help to advance the narrative about Test cricket’s revenue-share model, in the wake of his remarks earlier this year that the current system is “completely broken“. Speaking at Lord’s during MCC’s inaugural World Cricket Connects symposium – a gathering of many of the sport’s most influential players, administrators…
Gloucestershire 196 for 5 (Hammond 42, Gregory 3-34) beat Somerset 194 for 6 (Banton 77*, Green 47) by five wickets Ben Charlesworth hit the penultimate ball of the match for six to give Gloucestershire a thrilling five-wicket Vitality Blast South Group victory over arch-rivals Somerset at Taunton. The visitors chased down a target of 195, including 13 off the final over bowled by Ben Green, Charlesworth hitting an unbeaten 24…
Northern Diamonds 199 for 4 (Armitage 101*) beat Western Storm 200 for 5 (Wilson 61, Corney 40) by six wickets – DLS Hollie Armitage scored a brilliant unbeaten hundred to guide Northern Diamonds to an impressive six-wicket victory over Western Storm on the Duckworth/Lewis/Stern method in an entertaining Rachel Heyhoe Flint Trophy match at Cheltenham. Chasing a revised target of 199 on a day when 41 overs were lost to…
Northants144 for 5 (Vasconcelos 41, Sowter 2-17) beat Durham 140 (Ackermann 70, Sanderson 4-15) by five wickets Lewis McManus and Ashton Agar held their nerve to take Northamptonshire Steelbacks to victory in the last over of this Vitality T20 Blast thriller at Wantage Road. Northamptonshire needed 10 runs an over in the last five after falling behind the rate chasing 141 to win, but McManus showed just how much his…