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A round-up of the Dhaka Premier League matches on February 7, 2018

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Feb-2018Sheikh Jamal Dhanmondi Club overcame Asif Hasan’s hat-trick to kick off their Dhaka Premier League with a nail-biting three-run win over Legends of Rupganj at the BKSP-4 ground in Savar.Batting first, Dhanmondi Club’s sprinted to a solid start, putting on 66 at over seven an over. Asif then struck thrice in as many balls across two overs to reduce them to 67 for 3. They never quite recovered from the stutter, slipping to 131 for 7. Nurul Hasan then added 75 for the eighth wicket with Al-Imran to haul the score over 200. They eventually ended up with 230 for 9, Nurul having top-scored with 90. Asif finished with 3 for 29 in 10 overs; Mohammad Sharif, Mosharraf Hossain and Naeem Islam, the captain, picked up two apiece.Rupganj struggled in their reply, limping to 56 for five in the 21st over. Naeem fought alone with an unbeaten 116, but found support only from Nazmul Hossain Milon, who made 51 and added 89 for the sixth wicket with his captain. Abu Jayed, the Dhanmondi new-ball bowler, then struck thrice as Rupganj were kept to 227 for 8 in 50 overs.Alok Kapali’s unbeaten 95 helped Brothers Union to a five-wicket win in a chase of 231 against Mohammedan Sporting Club at the BKSP-3 ground. Kapali’s 91-ball effort, compiled with the help of six fours and four sixes, helped Brothers Union run down the target in 47.2 overs.Kapali and John Simpson, the English wicketkeeper-batsman, added 105 runs for the fourth wicket to get the chase back on track after Brothers Union had slipped to 51 for 3. Simpson made 39 off 57 balls.Earlier, Mohammedan’s 230 for 8 was built around their second and third-wicket partnerships. Salman Butt and Shamsur Rahman, the captain, added 94 after the early loss of Rony Talukdar, before Shamsur dominated a stand of 70 with Raqibul Hasan. Butt made 62 off 80 balls, while Shamsur’s 85 contained six fours and two sixes. But after the duo’s dismissals, the Brothers Union bowlers wereable to curb the scoring in the slog overs.Fifties from Mehedi Maruf and Zakir Hasan helped Prime Bank Cricket Club canter to a seven-wicket win over Kalabagan Krira Chakra at the Fatullah Cricket Stadium.Maruf and Zakir motored Prime Bank’s chase of 173 with a first-wicket stand of 74, before Prime Bank’s Indian recruit Kunal Chandela took them home with an unbeaten 41.Earlier, batting first, Kalabagan were restricted to 172 for 8 in 50 overs. The runs were largely down to an unbeaten half-century from their No. 7 Mahmudul Hasan, and his sixth-wicket stand of 66 with Taibur Rahman (45). Seamer Delwar Hossain took 3 for 32 in 10 overs for Prime Bank.

Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, has effectively ruled out the scheduling of a day/night Ashes Test when Australia tour England in 2019

Daniel Brettig at Melbourne27-Dec-2017Tom Harrison, the ECB chief executive, has effectively ruled out the scheduling of a day-night Ashes Test when Australia tour England in 2019, despite the concept’s success in drawing bigger crowds to grounds and greater audiences to television screens.Alongside Cricket Australia’s chief executive James Sutherland, Harrison has been a key advocate for changes geared at making Test cricket more accessible to fans, with day-night matches, the looming Test Championship and experiments with four-day matches among the measures being tried around the world.However Harrison was firm in stating it was highly unlikely that a day-night Ashes Test would be part of the 2019 schedule, arguing that England hosting Australia did not need tinkering with. The two countries played a first day-night Test against each other in the second match of the current series at Adelaide Oval, and Sutherland has indicated there will now be at least one floodlit Test in every Australian home summer. Two day/night fixtures – against India and Sri Lanka – are likely in 2018-19.”It’s to be decided, but it’s unlikely, to be honest,” Harrison told ABC Radio when asked about the prospect of a day-night Test in 2019. “I think we’ve got a format that works brilliantly well for us in Ashes cricket in the UK. Right time, right place, right conditions are the rules for day-night Test cricket, I think we’ll wait and see, but it’s unlikely I would say.”The ECB and CA have taken contrasting approaches to growing the game in recent years, with England’s cricket audience reduced by the Board’s 12-year-old reliance on Sky television money while Australian cricket chases the widest possible free-to-air television audience. Harrison said that it was “astonishing” to see a crowd of more than 88,000 spectators at the MCG on Boxing Day, but said much more needed to be done to ensure the health of Test cricket around the world.”It’s an astonishing achievement to get this amount of people watching Test cricket and it’s a great advert for where we are as an Ashes series, but of course the Ashes is not the standard marker for what Test cricket is actually facing around the world,” Harrison said. “So we’ve got to take a look at that, James and I are involved in a similar debate at ICC about how we make sure that Test cricket is relevant, it has context and meaning and the conditions under which it is played can guarantee as much as possible fantastic entertainment for fans around the world.”I think there are significant challenges there, but I think we’re doing the right thing by looking at the FTP in a meaningful way, trying to create a Test Championship around the FTP, which we’re very close to doing. Once you’ve got a Championship format where every series matters we can start looking at the details that sit behind that.”About pitch quality, about the schedule itself, about the way in which we can start innovating beyond things like day/night Test cricket which has worked so well in this country and we’ve just started in the UK as well, and start to look at what are the key things we can tweak within Test cricket to make it even more relevant and meaningful for fans.”The Melbourne crowd thinned out significantly by the end of Boxing Day, and the slow drop-in pitch has already faced criticism – from the England seamer James Anderson among others – for not providing the right sort of entertainment for spectators. Sutherland said that while Test cricket would inherently contain such passages, it was vital that good, fair surfaces were prepared to provide a balance between bat and ball.”It was a dour day’s play, Australia got off to a pretty good start and then England were able to contain the Australian players through that middle session,” Sutherland said. “That was perhaps a little bit due to the conditions but also good bowling on the England players’ part. But Test cricket’s like that sometimes, it’s a real battle and players need to work through those difficult times. I think it’s too early to judge in this Test match what that means and people talking about the pitch and things like that.”I think the broad statement is pitches are incredibly important to the future of Test cricket, we need to provide an entertaining contest, we need to provide a balance between bat and ball and I think broadly we’ve seen that in the three Test matches so far this summer, and who knows, there’s still four days’ cricket left in this game, let’s see how everything unfolds on the park.”

After battling illness last week, Philander has now been struck with back spasms on the eve of the final Test at Old Trafford and faces a fitness test

Firdose Moonda at Old Trafford03-Aug-2017A last-minute call will be taken on Vernon Philander’s availability for the final Test against England at Old Trafford after he began to suffer with lower-back spasms on the eve of the must-win game. Philander has only just recovered from the viral infection which limited his participation in the third Test and when he spoke on Wednesday he said had put the illness behind him and was “looking forward” to having more of a say in the upcoming fixture, especially as he felt his intensity was missed at The Oval.South Africa are similarly anxious to have a fully-fit Philander in their XI as they look to square the series and go home with something to show for what has been an otherwise disappointing three-month tour. After the third Test, captain Faf du Plessis cited Philander’s illness, which resulted in him only bowling 32 overs out of 183.1 at The Oval, as one of the key reasons for South Africa’s defeat. Before the fourth Test, du Plessis elaborated on how Philander’s fitness, or lack thereof, will impact on team selection.”Vernon at 100% fit means we can look at playing three seamers and play seven batters. Vernon at 90% doesn’t mean you can play three seamers because you don’t want to be in a position where you have a seamer break down and then you only have two bowlers, because that is basically the Test match over right there,” du Plessis said. “The one occasion where we managed to pull a miracle off was in Australia with two seamers, but normally you can’t win a Test match with two bowlers. If he is not 100% fit, it’s important to look at having four seamers.”The match du Plessis was referring to was played in Perth last November when Dale Steyn broke his shoulder. Then, Philander, Kagiso Rabada and Keshav Maharaj made up a three-man attack and were able to bowl Australia out with a lead of just two runs in the first innings. South Africa’s current crop of Rabada, Morne Morkel and Maharaj were unable to replicate that at The Oval, making Philander an even more crucial member of the side now than he was nine months ago. Not only is he the container-in-chief, but Philander’s runs have been also vital to South Africa, which is why he is key to balance.If Philander can operate at his optimal, South Africa seem to be pondering lengthening the batting line-up, which would likely mean the inclusion of Theunis de Bruyn ahead of Chris Morris, in order to make up for the lapses of their top five. Should they play an XI that includes de Bruyn and not Morris, Philander will have to bowl more overs. But if Philander’s workload needs to be monitored, then South Africa will need Morris to make up those overs and so can’t play de Bruyn. That means Philander will bat at No. 7, with Morris at No. 8, placing extra pressure on both of them to produce with bat and ball.This is the fourth time in the series Philander has carried an ailment. He went into the Lord’s Test on the back of an ankle injury sustained during a county stint with Sussex which prevented him from playing in the tour match. During that game, he was struck on the hand though that did not result in any serious damage apart from a dropped catch. Last week, Philander was laid low by a stomach bug which quickly escalated into a viral infection and now there is a back problem.Philander will undergo a fitness test on Thursday afternoon but South Africa will wait to see how feels on Friday morning before making a final decision.

Ellyse Perry’s 91-ball 71 formed the bedrock of Australia’s 220 chase, which they saw off with five wickets in hand in the penultimate over

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jul-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJess Jonassen’s three-for stifled New Zealand’s top order•International Cricket Council

Ellyse Perry flexed her batting muscle to help Australia to their third win in as many games at the Women’s World Cup. Her 91-ball 71 formed the bedrock of the 220 chase against New Zealand, which they eventually saw off with five wickets in hand in the penultimate over.The heroes were, however, Jess Jonassen and Megan Schutt, who picked up three wickets a piece to scupper New Zealand’s hopes of posting a bigger total. Jonassen, who was left out of the previous game, did the bulk of the damage to the top order. Her strikes of Amy Satterthwaite and and Katey Martin within a space of three deliveries in the 23rd over led to a breakdown in momentum.Suzie Bates, playing her 100th ODI, soldiered on to bring up an uncharacteristic half-century, before playing to a premeditated sweep to Jonassen’s arm ball. At that stage, Jonassen’s figures read 3 for 22 off seven overs. Katie Perkins, playing her first innings of the tournament, provided the late lift with a sprightly 59-ball 52. She was complemented by Erin Bermingham, who made 35, as New Zealand, tottering at 147 for 6 in 37 overs, recovered to post 219 for 9.Beth Mooney and Nicole Bolton treaded a caution-first approach during the course of their 49-run opening stand. Meg Lanning and Perry, who came together with Australia at 72 for 2, then steadied the innings with a 71-run stand to take them close to 150. Australia were cruising, but not for long as 16-year old legspinner Amelia Kerr gave New Zealand a glimmer of hope.Lanning, who was looking to step out and defend, was deceived in flight and dip as she nicked one to the wicketkeeper for 48. Next delivery, Kerr accounted for Elyse Villani with a wrong’un. Australia were suddenly four down, with 77 to get. But they weren’t to be denied as Perry carried on in Alex Blackwell’s company – the pair took Australia to within a run of victory before Blackwell hit the winning runs with eight balls to spare.

The Bangladesh captain is certain about “bouncing back” from the collapse in Durban

Mohammad Isam05-Apr-2022Surrendering to spin in overseas conditions didn’t sit well with Bangladesh captain Mominul Haque, who has taken the responsibility of the team to bounce back in the Port Elizabeth Test which begins on Friday. Chasing 274 on the last day in Durban, the visitors were bowled out for just 53, their second-lowest Test score, with Keshav Maharaj and Simon Harmer sharing all ten wickets.Bangladesh lost three wickets late on the fourth evening but there was hope that Mushfiqur Rahim could lead some sort of recovery on the last day. But that was not to be. Mushfiqur was the first to go on the fifth morning, when he was trapped lbw by Maharaj, and the collapse followed.”I think it was a big crime on our part to give wickets to spinners on foreign soil,” Mominul said. “You simply cannot give wickets to spinners when you are on tour. You have to score runs against spinners. I think it is my fault. I couldn’t score in either innings. It is nothing but a total batting failure. I think we just couldn’t handle the pressure.”Related

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At one stage, Bangladesh were threatening to break their record of lowest Test score of 43, but for a couple of big hits from Najmul Hossain Shanto and Taskin Ahmed. South Africa’s spin duo bowled accurately, preying on the defensive mindset of the Bangladesh batters. It was a surprise to see a batting unit bred on spinning tracks to succumb to spin so easily on a good pitch.Mominul himself had an inauspicious 50th Test match, making only 0 and 2. He has scored just one fifty in the last ten innings, a rare downturn in his Test career. He wasn’t worried, though, and was already looking to turn the corner.”I don’t think the captaincy is weighing down my batting form. I am not worried about it. I don’t think I am in bad form. I will be back on track after a good innings. I am not too worried,” he said.Mominul was more concerned about convincing his team that they had only one bad day in Durban, and that shouldn’t bother them for the second Test.”We can certainly bounce back from this defeat,” he said. “We played well in four out of the five days. We batted poorly in the last few overs yesterday and on the fifth day. There are enough positives to take from this Test match, to suggest to me that we can bounce back easily in the next game.”[Mahmudul Hasan] Joy’s 137 was a really good innings. Litton [Das], Rabbi (Yasir Ali) and [Mehidy Hasan] Miraz also batted well. The fast bowlers did really well. Miraz was outstanding. We didn’t play badly for all five days. We just had a bad fifth day, but as everyone knows, it is difficult to get back from a Test after you slip once. I think we can come back into the series by being mentally strong.”

“He’s got the technique, he’s got the temperament, which is the most important thing when you play at the highest level”

ESPNcricinfo staff12-May-20220:50

Jayawardene: Tilak Varma ‘a massive talent’, ‘very fortunate to pick him in the auction’

Mumbai Indians’ captain Rohit Sharma is so impressed by Tilak Varma that he believes that the 19-year-old batter has both the technique and temperament to become an all-format player for India in the near future. Varma had represented India in the Under-19 World Cup in South Africa in 2020, when they finished runners-up.Then, in his first IPL season under Rohit, Varma emerged as a bright spot, even as his team-mates floundered and his team became the first to fall out of contention for the playoffs. So far, Varma has made 386 runs in 12 innings – the most by a teenager in an IPL season, breaking Rishabh Pant’s record of 366 runs in 2017. At present, Varma is the seventh-highest run-getter this season, with those runs coming at an average of 40.88 and strike rate of 132.85.Related

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“He’s been brilliant playing for the first year,” Rohit said of Varma, speaking to Star Sports, the host broadcaster, after Mumbai beat Chennai Super Kings. “Having such a calm head is never easy and in my opinion, I feel he’s going to be an all-format player for India pretty soon. He’s got the technique, he’s got the temperament, which is the most important thing when you play at the highest level.”So, I think a lot of things are looking bright for him and there is hunger. When you speak to him, there’s hunger to do well and finish games and have some success as well. I think he’s on the right path; he just needs to keep growing and see how he can improve and get better as a player.”Tilak Varma has made a splash in his maiden IPL season•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

In the injury-enforced absence of Suryakumar Yadav, Varma stepped up to finish off a small chase of 98 against Super Kings, on a challenging Wankhede pitch, after Mumbai had slumped to 33 for 4 within five overs. Varma absorbed the pressure along with offspin-bowling allrounder Hrithik Shokeen, who is also playing his first IPL season, in a 48-run partnership.“We might try certain things” – Mumbai start planning for the future
Uncapped South African batter Tristan Stubbs, who came in as a late replacement for the injured Tymal Mills, was handed his IPL debut in the game, as Mumbai plan for the future. Stubbs fell for a duck, but he has potentially two more games this season to ease himself into the set-up.”Yeah, we’re keeping one eye on that [future] definitely, but we want to win games,” Rohit said. “That’s the bottom line but at the same time we want to make sure that we try out certain players and give them certain roles and try and see if they can live up to that. It will hold us in good stead for the next year. There are options that we want to try – there are still two games to go for us. So we might try certain things as well.”Stubbs’ inclusion meant Kieron Pollard was dropped from the XI after managing only 144 runs at an average of 14.40 and a strike rate of 107.46 – his lowest strike rate in any IPL season. According to Rohit, the call to bench Pollard and try out other options went down well with him.”He’s been a stalwart for Mumbai, there’s no doubt about it,” Rohit said of Pollard. “I said it at the toss as well. It was him who came out and spoke about it [sitting out]. He’s okay with that because obviously we’re looking at players. Had we been in a situation where we had a chance to qualify, probably this wouldn’t have happened. But we’re keeping one eye on what are the holes we need to fill for the next year. Keeping everything in mind, we had to make that call and Kieron was the one who actually came up and said: ‘Absolutely fine by me’.”

Birmingham’s defeat of Lancashire leaves them needing Northants to beat Yorkshire on Thursday night to keep their quarter-final hopes alive

ECB Reporters Network15-Aug-2018
ScorecardBirmingham Bears preserved their hopes of qualifying for the Vitality Blast quarter-finals with a comfortable seven-wicket win over Lancashire Lightning at Edgbaston.Lancashire, already assured a place in the last eight, chose to bat but were bowled out for 102 with only Danny Lamb passing 20.Olly Hannon-Dalby inflicted most damage with 4-0-20-4 although critical pressure was imposed by spinners Jeetan Patel (4-1-15-1) and Josh Poysden (4-0-18-1). With Birmingham lacking Henry Brookes and Olly Stone, both injured, and Chris Woakes, back in the England side, Hannon-Dalby did his utmost to disguise their lack of pace up front with subtle variations of pace.Birmingham then eased to 105 for 3 with 35 balls to spare after openers Ed Pollock (36, 24) and Ian Bell (34, 36 balls) added 68 from 54 balls.The Bears now need a favour from Northants Steelbacks on Thursday. If the Steelbacks beat Yorkshire at Wantage Road, the Bears could still qualify with victory over Worcestershire Rapids in the big derby at Edgbaston on Friday.On that match does the Lightning’s quest for a home quarter-final now also hinge. A Rapids victory would mean they claim a home quarter, consigning Lancashire to travel in the processThe Lightning innings started smoothly enough, 22 runs arriving from the first 17 balls, but then slumped to 59 for six. Hannon-Dalby started the collapse with two wickets in four balls, Alex Davies and Karl Brown caught at extra cover and mid on respectively.Dane Vilas lifted Aaron Thomason to deep point, Arron Lilley became Grant Elliott’s 18th victim of this year’s Blast when he sliced to short third man and Josh Bohannon the 19th when he was trapped in front.Patel and Poysden increased the pressure, the latter bowling Steven Croft with a textbook leg-break. Catches from wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose, fresh from signing a contract extension at Edgbaston, did for James Faulkner, Lamb and Mark Watt as the Lightning lower-order flailed in vain before Hannon-Dalby removed Matt Parkinson to seal a personal T20 best.Bell and Pollock made rapid inroads into the small target. Bell, in the T20 form of his life, has become the Bears’ highest ever scorer in the format during this year’s tournament and again batted with class and composure. Pollock, under no pressure to go too hard in pursuit of such a meagre total, played with controlled aggression and sent the score past 50 in the eighth over with 16 from three successive balls from Lilley.Pollock perished to a catch at long on, just as the Bears’ first ever T20 ten-wicket win loomed, and Bell chipped Parkinson to mid-off but victory soon followed to put the Bears’ fans firmly in the Steelbacks’ camp tomorrow.

The A squad for the two unofficial Tests also includes opener Dimuth Karunaratne and Sri Lanka’s second spinner, Dilruwan Perera

Andrew Fidel Fernando13-Feb-2017Dhananjaya de Silva – fresh from a tough tour of South Africa – has been named Sri Lanka A captain for the two unofficial Tests against England Lions, which start from February 17. Test opener Dimuth Karunaratne has also been named in the squad, as well as Sri Lanka’s second spinner Dilruwan Perera.Among those in contention for Test places who have been named in this squad are openers Udara Jayasundera and Ron Chandraguptha, middle-order batsman Roshen Silva, and spinners Jeffrey Vandersay, Amila Aponso and Malinda Pushpakumara.

Sri Lanka A squad

Dhananjaya de Silva (capt), Dimuth Karunaratne, Udara Jayasundera, Sandun Weerakkody (wk), Charith Asalanka, Roshen Silva, Lahiru Gamage, Kasun Rajitha, Ron Chandraguptha, Kasun Madushanka, Asitha Fernando, Dilruwan Perera, Amila Aponso, Jeffrey Vandersay, Malinda Pushpakumara

De Silva had had an excellent start to his Test career in the home series against Australia last year, but now finds himself in the A team after having failed to reach fifty in any of his 14 international innings in South Africa. Though Karunaratne was one of three batsmen to make a half century in the recent Tests, he has also been in modest form in recent months. Since the start of 2016, he has made 578 runs at an average of 27.52.Perera’s inclusion in the A team, however, has little to do with form, and is perhaps an effort to give him some high-quality match practice. Having been excellent during last year’s Australia series, Perera did not play in the South Africa Tests where conditions did not suit spin bowlers. He has been effective in the Premier League first-class competition, since his return to Sri Lanka from South Africa, and is almost certain to play some role in the Tests against Bangladesh next month. The England Lions series may simply represent a chance for him to bowl at some high-quality foreign batsmen.With the incumbent Test openers having scored runs only sporadically over the past year, there will be special interest in the other potential openers in this Sri Lanka A team. Jayasundera, for example, is something of an experienced domestic opener, and has had one stint in the Test team already. There is also substantial buzz about 21-year-old Chandraguptha, who has hit 837 runs at an average of 59.78 in the ongoing Premier League tournament. Nondescripts Cricket Club opener Sandun Weerakkody, who recently played the South Africa ODIs, had also been good in the domestic competition, hitting 530 runs at 53.Sri Lanka have a settled Test bowling unit at home and, as such, all players like Vandersay, Aponso, Pushpakumara and seamer Kasun Rajitha have to gain is to make themselves viable replacements, should one of the Test incumbents become injured. Pushpakumara, 29, may particularly relish the opportunity to perform at this level, having been one of Sri Lanka’s most successful domestic bowlers for several years. He has 537 first-class wickets at an average of 19.92.The first of the two four-day matches begins in Pallekele on February 17. The action then moves to Dambulla, where the second match is scheduled to start on February 24.

Kane Richardson speculates early returns last year could have led to him and Adam Zampa going unsold in IPL auction

Alex Malcolm15-Feb-2022Australia’s Glenn Maxwell has confirmed he will miss the Pakistan tour, and will likely miss the start of the IPL, due to his upcoming wedding, while Kane Richardson has pondered whether he and Adam Zampa may have damaged their reputations with IPL owners after leaving the tournament early last year.Maxwell, who is in the frame to captain Royal Challengers Bangalore this season, had flagged publicly after the T20 World Cup in November last year that he would miss the Pakistan tour due to his wedding in late March.But given the early start to the IPL season, it means David Warner, Mitchell Marsh, Pat Cummins, Marcus Stoinis, Josh Hazlewood, Matthew Wade and Daniel Sams are all likely to be unavailable due to Australia duty in Pakistan, with the final T20I to be played on April 5.Related

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Maxwell will also still be in Melbourne due to his upcoming wedding. He explained to the host broadcaster Fox Sports during the third T20I against Sri Lanka in Canberra that the clash was unavoidable due to the constant schedule changes, despite consulting Cricket Australia.”Originally when I organised the dates with CA there was a two-week gap where I could potentially have it,” Maxwell said. “So when I sorted that out I was pretty happy that I wasn’t going to be missing in any series. And then I came to the [CA] contract meeting midway through last year and they said well this is [when] the Pakistan series [is on] and I thought well obviously that’s changed since the last conversation we had.”Meanwhile, Richardson, who was Player of the Match in Canberra after taking 3 for 21, spoke candidly about not being bought at the IPL auction.Richardson was not surprised he wasn’t picked up but eyebrows were raised about Zampa being left unsold after his outstanding T20 World Cup. Richardson wondered whether the decision by the pair to leave the IPL early last year just prior to the tournament’s postponement due to Covid-19 might have had an impact.”I was definitely more shocked for him,” Richardson said. “To be brutally honest, when we left last year, in the circumstances early, I remember having a conversation with him. I said to him, look, this may come back and bite us, and at that time it wasn’t a priority for us to be there. We wanted to get back to Australia.”So I think there’d be some kind of buyers that’d be pretty wary of picking us up thinking that we wouldn’t come again. I definitely think that’s a factor.”Richardson did stress that he hadn’t spoken to any franchises about the reasons and that he wasn’t upset about not being bought. He did hope that he hadn’t done any long-term reputational damage because he had made a decision to be with his family.”I’m just speaking on what I think would be a factor in it,” Richardson said. “I don’t know. I’ve never had a dialogue with a franchise or a person that says that’s what would be the case. But I think I didn’t go the year before as well with the birth of my boy.”So my reputation probably is that in the last couple of years I haven’t gone so it’s obviously not something that I am. I try and play as much cricket as I can. But I think the circumstances in the last couple of IPLs have made me not go. But it’s not a reputation I want.”So that’s just us brainstorming. I think that’d be a point of them being wary of us turning up, but I’m not I’m not 100% sure.”

Home side fall away between showers despite promising platform

ECB Reporters Network02-Jul-2022Southern Vipers 75 for 3 (Wyatt 36*) beat Central Sparks 163 for 7 (E Jones 39, Scholfield 2-20) by seven wickets (DLS method)Southern Vipers defeated Central Sparks by seven wickets on Duckworth-Lewis-Stern in a heavily rain-affected Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy opener at Portland Road. After frequent interruptions by the weather, Vipers chased down a revised DLS target of 70 in ten overs as they reached 75 for 3 with just two balls to spare.On a relentlessly damp afternoon in Birmingham, calculators were to the fore as both innings were truncated by heavy showers.Sparks batted first and closed on 163 for 7 from 36 overs – an innings of two halves after they reached 103 for 3 from 24 before a two-hour rain break. They resumed with 12 more overs to have a thrash but added just 60 more against disciplined bowling led by Georgia Elwiss (8-0-29-1).Chasing an initial target of 176 from 36, Vipers were 24 for 1 when rain returned. That trimmed the target to 70 from ten and Danni Wyatt paced the chase to perfection with an unbeaten 36 from 24 balls.Put in, Sparks, depleted by the absence of Emily Arlott, still recovering from Covid, and recent England debutant Issy Wong, were given a solid platform by openers Eve Jones and Davina Perrin who added 65 in 17 overs. Fifteen-year-old Perrin, a Staffordshire product, impressed for 22 from 48 balls before lifting Charlotte Taylor to mid-on.Paige Schofield soon had Thea Brookes caught behind before Jones’s promising innings of 39 ended in wasteful fashion when Ami Campbell called for a second run and Jones’ desperate dive for home narrowly failed. Three balls later the rain arrived and, after the resumption, Vipers bowled accurately to deny Sparks the boundaries they needed to beef up their total. #Vipers’ reply suffered an early blow when Georgia Adams was trapped lbw by the third ball of the innings, from Grace Potts. Wyatt was quickly into her stride, striking three boundaries despite the wet outfield before rain returned at 24 for 1 after three.The final chapter of a complex plot saw Vipers resume at 5.20pm needing another 46 from seven overs. Wyatt and Maia Boucher added a measured 62 from 47 balls and though Boucher fell lbw to Sarah Glenn in the penultimate over, Vipers needed just five from the last, from Hannah Baker.A handsome straight four from 17-year-old Freya Kemp from the second ball relieved the pressure. Kemp was bowled by the next but Elwiss settled the match by lifting her first ball for a huge six.