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Batter follows his innings-rescuing 101* with an effortless 130

ECB Reporters Network30-Apr-2022Nick Gubbins scored twin centuries in an LV= Insurance County Championship match for the first time in his career as Hampshire set Lancashire 351 to win at the Ageas Bowl.Left-handed batter Gubbins followed his innings-rescuing 101 not out with an effortless 130 to give Hampshire a hefty lead on a pitch which had previously benefited the bowlers.He joined forces with Ben Brown, who scored a high-quality 72, to put on 144 for the fifth wicket to grind down Lancashire.Hampshire were eventually bowled out for 344, with the visitors reaching nine in six wicketless overs by close.Gubbins broke through in Middlesex’s championship-winning season in 2016, where he clattered 1,409 Division One runs, including four centuries (a double against Lancashire among them). At that point, a Test career seemed a formality.Related

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However, those expectations played on his mind, his average nose-dived to 25 the following season and talk of international call-ups dried up. A change of scenery to Hampshire last summer has seen a fresh blossoming with 769 runs in 2021 followed by a profitable spell in Zimbabwe over the winter. He already has 364 runs in the 2022 Championship.That kind of form tends to turn heads, especially with a new Test captain and managing director looking at ways to stamp a freshness to the squad. Scoring a pair of centuries against England’s premium fast bowler won’t do any harm of upgrading from 27 England Lions appearances, either.He spoke in 2019 about how he had matured and grown after the purple-patch pressures: “I like to think I’ve become better at dealing with things in life generally, be it talk of England or the boiler going in the house.” Those life lessons were put into action on the first morning when he was in the middle of Hampshire collapsing to 40 for 5. Then, his unbeaten 101 kept Hampshire in the game.Today, his century was more about putting his side in a position to win. This was a better day for batting. The skies were blue and the ball was already 36 overs old. The caveat being James Anderson and his relentless control. His first six-over spell of the day saw four maidens and Liam Dawson’s wicket. He eventually recorded 3 for 36.Gubbins was largely anonymous in his slow run-building, although he burst into life with two eye-catching cover drives. The first punishing a rare piece of width offered by Anderson, the latter taking him to a 120-ball fifty.Gubbins and Brown are two recent signings under-pinning Hampshire’s chase for a first title since 1974; hungry having been unwanted by previous counties but with the records of the finest county players. They grew the lead in a risk-free fashion, making the most of an unresponsive ageing ball, totting up 144 runs together in the lazy spring afternoon sun.Gubbins’ big moment came when he pushed Hasan Ali through the covers and for a second the emotion appeared to swell as he gently punched the air with his head bowed, tapped his bat on the floor three times before turning around and almost collapsing into a hug with Brown. Only then did he take off his helmet and raise his bat to the dressing room for the 13th ton of his first-class career.Brown reached 72 before the second new ball pinned him plumb in front, with Felix Organ following him back shortly after when not offering a shot to George Balderson. The lead passed 300 before Gubbins was finally dismissed after 231 runs and 515 deliveries in the match when Danny Lamb trapped him on the crease. Keith Barker chipped in with 40 before scything to cover, James Fuller was bowled and Muhammad Abbas holed out to long-on to complete the innings.

Leaders Surrey lose Dan Worrall to injury – but McKerr deputises with key strikes

ECB Reporters Network25-Jul-2022Warwickshire (Sibley 43, McAndrew 40*, McKerr 3-39) vs SurreyWarwickshire battled their way to 240 for 8, despite no one passing fifty, after being put in to bat by unbeaten Division One leaders Surrey in their LV= Insurance County Championship match at the Kia Oval.Seven of their top eight got to 22 or more, without going on to a significant score, although allrounder Nathan McAndrew remains 40 not out after a determined effort in the final session of a hard-fought day.Dom Sibley’s 43 was the best individual score, while Surrey’s five-man pace attack all impressed with 19-year old seamer Tom Lawes perhaps the stand-out bowler with figures of 2 for 38 from 20 overs.Surrey were missing their Australian spearhead Dan Worrall, who took 11 wickets in the game in last week’s win against Essex, due to a shoulder injury suffered in the warm-up.Related

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Conor McKerr, called up to replace Worrall, ended the day with 3 for 39 and Jamie Overton took 2 for 47 despite having to lead the field for treatment to a sore finger on his bowling hand, sustained when hit a painful blow at first slip in mid-morning.15 minutes before the toss, McKerr had been at home in Weybridge getting ready for a day trip to London with his wife Paige, but was on the field of play two hours later. “It was a great telephone call to get, telling me to get straight to the ground, although obviously it was bad luck for Dan Worrall getting injured in the warm-up,” he said.”I think sometimes the best way is being thrown in like that, because you just go out there and concentrate on doing what comes naturally. I thought our whole seam attack bowled very well all day today, and everyone has a lot of confidence at the moment so we are all feeding off one another.”On a grassy surface, Warwickshire initially did well to get to lunch at 71 for 2 with Sibley twice dropped on 19 and 28 but always showing typical grit in the tricky conditions.Cameron Steel, on as a substitute fielder while McKerr travelled to the ground, could not hold a difficult low diving catch to his left at a widish fourth slip when Sibley edged Overton and later in the morning session the Warwickshire opener saw Ryan Patel spill a straightforward chance at third slip off Lawes.Surrey’s pace battery also beat the bat with regularity but their only successes before lunch came when Alex Davies, on 23, edged Lawes’ second ball to Overton at first slip and then, at 65, when McKerr – having taken the field just after 12.15pm – struck with the first ball of his second over to have Chris Benjamin held by Will Jacks at first slip for 7, pushing crookedly at one that lifted and left him.The first hour of the afternoon session was a particularly attritional affair and Warwickshire’s first innings looked in danger of grinding almost to a halt when Sibley’s defiance was ended by Lawes, who made a ball lift sharply to have the former England Test opener caught off the face of his bat by keeper Ben Foakes, and Sam Hain was dismissed seven overs later by Jordan Clark.Warwickshire were 107 for 4 in the 54th over when Hain, having made it to 27, edged the persevering Clark to second slip where Ollie Pope held on to the catch at the second attempt.McKerr’s second spell just before tea saw an increase, at last, in the scoring rate with his first three overs back costing 30 runs. But both Michael Burgess, twice, and Will Rhodes were fortunate to see short-arm pulls at the pacy McKerr result in top-edged fours over the keeper and slip cordon and Rhodes also thick-edged the same bowler between slips and gully for another streaky boundary.Burgess, however, fell for 22 to Overton’s fourth ball after tea, in the session’s second over, when he edged an outswinger to Foakes and McAndrew almost immediately needed an on-field concussion test when, trying to hook, he was hit flush on the helmet by Overton.Rhodes was livid with himself for flashing at McKerr, in the 76th over, and edging to Foakes to depart for a 74-ball 34, and Danny Briggs left shaking his head in disbelief when, after scoring a useful 23 in 46-run seventh wicket stand with McAndrew, he chipped a full toss from Overton straight back to the bowler.And Surrey were further boosted when McKerr won an lbw appeal against Brad Wheal, on loan from Hampshire, to dismiss the tailender for 4 with the day’s penultimate ball.

A devastating spell of bowling from Mark Footitt – or perhaps that should be Mark F00000itt – powered Surrey into an overwhelmingly dominant position at The Kia Oval

George Dobell at the Kia Oval08-Apr-2017
ScorecardA devastating spell of bowling from Mark Footitt – or perhaps that should be Mark F00000itt – powered Surrey into an overwhelmingly dominant position at The Kia Oval.Footitt claimed 6 for 14 as Warwickshire were bowled out for just 91, the lowest first-class total by a visiting team to The Oval since 1999 and their fourth lowest total this century, to give Surrey a first innings lead of 363 runs.At one stage Footitt, generating sharp pace on an easy-paced wicket, claimed six wickets for three runs in 32 deliveries as Warwickshire collapsed from 30 without loss to 48 for 8. It was a passage of play that saw five Warwickshire batsmen – including Jonathan Trott and Ian Bell – dismissed for ducks and gave Footitt a five-wicket haul for the fourth Championship match in succession.No other bowler in this match – and there are several who have been in international reckoning in recent times – has come close to replicating the bounce and pace achieved by Footitt as he charged in from The Vauxhall End. In one over before tea he accounted for Trott, set-up by some back of a length deliveries and then pinned by a lovely full inswinger as he fell over to the off side, and Bell, edging a peach of a ball that bounced and left him, while Sam Hain, drawn into a poke outside off stump, fell in his next over.William Porterfield was beaten by another beauty that bounced and took his outside edge, Rikki Clarke played across another that swung in and Keith Barker was bowled by one that may well have kept a bit low.While a couple of Warwickshire batsmen – not least Bell, who received one that scuttled along the pitch two balls before he was dismissed, and Barker, who was struck by a bouncer the ball before he was bowled – may point to some variable bounce as mitigation for their dismissals, the fact that their tenth-wicket pair posted the equal highest stand of the innings underlined the failings of the top-order and they may reflect that it was their choice to bowl first. Chris Wright, coming in at No. 10, finished as their highest scorer with an unbeaten 28 as reward for some application and a straight bat.It may well be that Footitt’s England chance has passed him by. He made it into the squad during the 2015 Ashes and then went on the tour to South Africa but, after an understandably nervous performance during the warm-up games, was overlooked for the start of the series. He came tantalisingly close to selection for the final Test in Pretoria but, in the end, the England management went for Chris Woakes instead. There is every chance that was as close as Footitt will get to a Test cap.But in form like this, he really does present a compelling case for a recall. Offering left-arm pace and swing, all delivered amid an awkward flurry of arms and legs, he challenges batsmen in a variety of ways and has the ability to unlock strong line-ups in good batting conditions. Certainly he looked a far more dangerous bowler than the relatively sedate Sam Curran, another left-arm swing bowler who has been tipped for selection, and he might yet – aged 31 – add some bite and variety to the England attack.It might be that he did not help himself at the start of last season. Having come back from what was, ultimately, a bit of a disappointing tour of South Africa from a personal perspective, he went into his first season with Surrey a little short of match fitness. He subsequently suffered a side strain in the opening weeks of the season after coming up against better batsmen on flatter tracks and finding it took more out of his body than had been the case at Derbyshire. It has taken time to recover his confidence, rhythm and pace.It would be a risk to take him to Australia. He is, despite his age, relatively inexperienced and might well find the aggression and pressure of an Ashes series a huge culture shock. He would have to learn to swing the Kookaburra ball, too. But if he can bowl like this, he will enjoy the pace of Australia pitches and no batsman will fancy facing him. It would be a stretch to compare him to Mitchell Johnson – he’s not that quick or awkward – but the challenges he offers are not so different.”I still have the ambition to play for England,” he said afterwards. “If it’s too late, it’s too late. But Gareth Batty went on the last tour and we was 38, so I’ve not given up and I don’t think you’re ever too old.”Would I like to go to Australia this winter for the Ashes? I’ve never even been there, so it would be nice just to go. Perhaps I wasn’t quite there fitness-wise this time last year but I feel strong now and I have my pace back.””I’ve seen a few spells over the years,” Jim Troughton, Warwickshire’s first team coach said, “but that’s right up with the best of them. He got pace and shape and bounce. I wouldn’t say any of our batsmen threw it away but we weren’t up to it and we’re going to have to front up in a big way over the next couple of days. I still think it’s a pretty decent track.”At least Warwickshire showed a little more resolve having been asked to follow-on. But any doubts Ashley Giles, Warwickshire’s new director of sport, had about the enormity of the task facing him upon his return to Edgbaston should now have been dispelled. An ageing side lacked the pace to extract life from the surface and the batting line-up looks overly reliant upon two men in their mid-30s. There are few obvious reserves pushing for selection, either. These are early days, but it could well be the start of a painful transition for Warwickshire.They had actually enjoyed the best of the first half of the day. Bowling with excellent discipline, they slowed the Surrey rate of scoring to a crawl and then picked up wickets as the batsmen’s frustration mounted. From a platform of 314 for 2 in the 86th over, Surrey lost their last eight wickets for 140 runs in a further 55 overs – and the last five for 49- with Wright recovering from an expensive start to finish with a five-wicket haul for the first time since July 2015. It was nothing compared to what followed from Footitt, though.

Sussex will be confident of wrapping up victory at Hove after a strong opening stand between Daryl Mitchell and Brett D’Oliveira was followed by a controversial umpiring reprieve and a wholesale collapse

ECB Reporters Network04-Jun-2017
ScorecardA minute’s silence is observed at Hove for victims of the London terrorist attack•Getty Images

Worcestershire are facing their first Specsavers County Championship defeat of the season after Sussex took 14 wickets on the third day at Hove and they were forced to follow on.Replying to Sussex’s 579 for 8, Daryl Mitchell and Brett D’Oliveira put on 215 – a new first-wicket record for Worcestershire against Sussex – before they lost all ten wickets in 30 overs either side of lunch.Bowled out for 312, they followed on 267 behind and Mitchell saw three partners depart at the other end, two of them to Chris Jordan, before he went just before the close for 54 as his side reached 124 for 4 at stumps, still 143 runs adrift.D’Oliveira had been involved in a controversial moment earlier in the day. Umpire Steve Garratt upheld Vernon Philander’s lbw appeal when D’Oliveira was on 71, although the batsman clearly felt he had hit the ball first. The batsman was making his way back to the pavilion when he was recalled after Garratt had consulted colleague Neil Mallender.Sussex finally made a breakthrough in the 67th over when Mitchell misjudged a hook off David Wiese and was caught at long leg for 121, made from 211 balls with 20 fours and a six. It was his third successive Championship hundred and 27th of his first-class career.Wiese struck again when D’Oliveira (80) holed out to deep mid-wicket then Tom Fell was taken at slip as he pushed forward to Jordan, but the collapse really gathered pace after lunch when Archer and Philander took the second new ball.Archer took 4 for 21 in 7.4 overs with it to raise his tally of Championship wickets to 23. Stiaan van Zyl took his third well-judged boundary catch when Joe Clarke failed to control a pull. Ross Whiteley was yorked and Joe Leach lbw to one which kept low before Archer ended the innings when Jack Shantry feathered a catch behind.Sussex skipper Chris Nash presses umpire Neil Mallender about Brett D’Oliveira’s reprieve•Getty Images

Philander was no less impressive in a seven-over burst which brought him 3 for 31 as he picked up Ben Cox, Ed Barnard and Josh Tongue, who was the South African’s 500th first-class wicket.It was an impressive response by Sussex, especially as Steve Magoffin was off the field with an Achilles injury, and their patience when Worcestershire batted again was eventually rewarded.D’Oliviera and Mitchell had few alarms for 14 overs until D’Oliveira was brilliantly held by the diving Jordan at slip. Jordan then produced an excellent spell from the Sea End to have Fell held at mid-on – one of several Worcestershire batsman who had struggled to play the short ball – before Clarke played on and lost his off stump.Sussex claimed the key scalp of Mitchell six overs before the close when he shuffled across and was leg before to van Zyl for 54. Sussex will now fancy their chances of wrapping up their second win of the season on Monday.

Rangpur Riders bowled Chittagong Vikings out for 124, setting up their nine-wicket win on the back of Mohammad Shahzad’s unbeaten 80

The Report by Mohammad Isam09-Nov-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Mohammad Shahzad struck 11 fours and three sixes in his unbeaten 80•International Cricket Council

Mohammad Shahzad marked his BPL debut with a blistering unbeaten 80, which helped Rangpur Riders thrash Chittagong Vikings by nine wickets at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday evening. Shahzad’s 52-ball innings contained 11 fours and three sixes. Rangpur’s win, though, was set up by a clinical bowling display that saw them bowl out Chittagong for 124 in the last over.Soumya Sarkar kicked off Rangpur’s chase with an upper-cut six and a square cut for four off Tymal Mills. Shahzad found his rhythm with crisp drives and cuts off Dwayne Smith’s medium pace. The openers sped to 43 for 0 in the Powerplay, although Mills dropped a skier off Shahzad’s top-edged slog on 18. Soon, Shahzad struck his first six off Mohammad Nabi before slapping a Taskin Ahmed delivery over mid-off for his seventh boundary.Mills bowled a beamer at Soumya in the tenth over but dismisssed him with a short delivery off the next ball. Soumya contributed 23 to the 77-run opening stand.With a pulled heave off Taskin, Shahzad reached his fifty off 41 balls. His slog over midwicket off Taskin was arguably his most memorable shot of the innings, and he hit another four and six through the same region in the over. The winning run came off an inside edge of an attempted helicopter shot, as Rangpur finished the chase with five overs to spare.Earlier Chittagong slipped to 21 for after they were put into bat. A 48-run third-wicket stand between Shoaib Malik and Anamul Haque resurrected the innings. But when Anamul was run-out, for the second match in a row, via a ricochet off Liam Dawson’s hand, Rangpur didn’t let go of their stranglehold.Arafat Sunny removed Jahurul Islam and Malik, who top-scored with 30, while Rubel Hossain had Mohammad Nabi caught at cover. Zakir Hasan’s attempted scoop was caught at short fine leg before Richard Gleeson struck twice in the 19th over to hasten Chittagong’s fall.

Defending champions bowl out Pakistan for 105 and chase it down inside 20 overs to keep semi-final hopes alive

Valkerie Baynes24-Mar-2022Katherine Brunt and Danni Wyatt rediscovered some form to dovetail with England’s World Cup resurgence as the defending champions made it three wins in three matches with a comprehensive nine-wicket victory over Pakistan in Christchurch.Brunt, the veteran England seamer, had taken just one wicket from five matches in the tournament before she and Sophie Ecclestone took three wickets each to help contain Pakistan to 105 all out inside 42 overs.Related

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Wyatt then scored an unbeaten 76 off 68 balls to bring it home with 30.4 overs to spare for England, who remain in control of their own semi-finals destiny. They moved to six points and into fourth place on the table, fractionally ahead of India on net run rate, after South Africa secured their place in the top four by sharing the points in a rained-off match with West Indies, who must now rely on other results to get through.England, who lost their opening three games, made a slow start to their chase as Diana Baig caused them some trouble, helping restrict the openers to just six runs in the first three overs. Wyatt got a second life on four when she cut Fatima Sana to gully where Nida Dar got her fingertips to the ball but couldn’t hold on.Wyatt made it count, hitting the next three balls for four runs each, pulled through square leg, driven in the air through cover and threaded fine through fine leg.Once Baig removed Tammy Beaumont lbw for just two, with Pakistan overturning the initial not-out decision, she then had new batter Heather Knight watchful, squaring her up first ball with one that just managed to evade slip then, next over, twice beating the bat and tangling her up with a yorker that the England captain just managed to dig out.After four overs, Diana had 1 for 7 as Wyatt hit her stride against Aiman Anwer, helping herself to four more boundaries including a powerful drive between point and cover-point as she moved to 36 from 32 balls to guide England to 48 for 1 at the end of the powerplay.Wyatt was elevated to open in England’s third match, a three-wicket loss to South Africa, replacing the out-of-form Lauren Winfield-Hill. Her previous best score of this tournament had been 33 batting at No. 7 against West Indies before Thursday.Danni Wyatt thrashes celebrates her fifty•ICC via Getty Images

Wyatt brought up her maiden World Cup half-century with a single to cover off Nashra Sandhu, and she drew England within 14 runs of victory with back-to-back fours off Dar before hitting the winning runs with a four off Fatima through fine leg, her 11th boundary of the innings. It was Wyatt’s second-highest ODI score as Knight settled into a supporting role to end not out on 24.Having won the toss and opted to bowl first on a Hagley Oval pitch boasting some live grass, England struck first ball via Brunt. She looked skywards with arms outstretched in relief when she had Nahida Khan, called into the Pakistan side to open in place of Muneeba Ali, caught at slip by Knight playing a long way forward to a full, late-moving outswinger that found the outside edge.Pakistan then lost their captain, Bismah Maroof, when she turned a full ball off Anya Shrubsole to the vacant region at backward square leg and called for a second run as wicketkeeper Amy Jones sprinted after the ball and fired it in sharply to the striker’s end, where Sophia Dunkley was waiting to remove the bails with Bismah short of her ground.That left Pakistan at 2 for 11 inside the first four overs, and by the end of the powerplay, they had added just 17 more runs.Omaima Sohail was run out rushing a single off Kate Cross as Beaumont swooped at mid-off and threw down the stumps at the non-striker’s end with an excellent direct hit.Pakistan were largely well contained, facing 18 scoreless balls and nine overs without a boundary before Sidra Ameen – having survived an England review for lbw off the previous delivery on umpire’s call – threaded Cross through square leg for four.Brunt struck again to remove Dar, trying to sweep a full-length ball that struck low on the front pad directly in line. She claimed her third with a gem of a length ball that seamed back in slightly as Ameen tried to steer it toward third man but managed only to get an inside edge onto her stumps to fall for 32, the top-scorer on an underwhelming Pakistan scorecard.After leaving impressive off-spinner Charlie Dean out of the side in favour of an extra batter in Emma Lamb, Knight brought herself into the attack to great effect when she tempted Aliya Riaz into a sweep and got a top edge to loop to Shrubsole at short fine leg.Ecclestone claimed three wickets in as many overs when she had Fatima Sana and Aiman Anwer caught behind by Jones and then wrapped up the Pakistan innings with a wonderful ball that was full and straight to peg back Diana’s middle stump. In between, Cross was miserly with her relentless line and length and she was rewarded on an excellent full-length ball that nipped back in to take out Sidra Nawaz’s leg stump.

The ECB has expanded its group of Cricket Liaison Officers (CLOs) for 2017, with a plan to have one present at every match

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Feb-2017The ECB has expanded its group of Cricket Liaison Officers (CLOs) for 2017, with a plan to have one present at every match. Andy Smith, the former Surrey allrounder, has been appointed to the new role of Cricket Operations Manager to oversee the CLOs.Five new CLOs, all with extensive experience of the county game, have been recruited: Tim Boon, Dean Cosker, Richard Ellison, Wayne Noon and Lloyd Tennant. They join the four appointed in 2015 – Graham Cowdrey, Stuart Cummings, Tony Pigott and Phil Whitticase – plus former international umpire Steve Davis, who joined the panel last year.”I’m delighted to be back in cricket at the ECB, in an interesting and challenging new role,” Smith said. “The Cricket Liaison Officers were introduced to county cricket in 2015 with the twin aims of supporting groundsmen and umpires, with the capacity to attend all four days of a Championship match, unlike Pitch Liaison Officers in the past.”After encouraging feedback following the introduction of this role two years ago, the CLO will now have more decision-making responsibility in the areas of discipline and the rating of pitches. It’s a positive step forward to support the county game and will enable us to provide coverage across all matches for the first time.”The ECB has also added former Derbyshire and Sussex batsman Mark Newell and James Middlebrook, who played for Yorkshire, Essex and Northamptonshire, to its reserve list of first-class umpires for 2017.