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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.

The MCC has announced that Derek Brewer will step down as chief execdutive in the winter of 2017-18

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Nov-2016Derek Brewer will retire as MCC chief executive during the winter of 2017-18. In a time of change in MCC administration, the deputy secretary Colin Maynard will also step down next winter, after more than 42 years with the club, leaving a new team to take charge ahead of the 2019 World Cup and an Ashes summer.Brewer took over at MCC in 2011 after seven years as chief executive of Nottinghamshire. His period of office has been characterised by impassioned debate over Lord’s development. The new Warner Stand, the first stage of the development, is nearing completion.Matthew Fleming, the MCC president, said: “It is a mark of the man that he is putting the club’s interests first by handing over at a time to allow his successor the opportunity to become accustomed to life at Lord’s prior to a crucial Ashes and World Cup year in 2019.”In his tenure, Lord’s has cemented its position firmly as the home of cricket, with unrivalled attendances for Test matches and a real focus on providing excellent experiences for members and all who visit the ground. In addition, he has overseen the successful first stage of the redevelopment of Lord’s and been the driving force in establishing the club as one with a real community focus, on a local, national and international level.”Brewer’s community commitment, also apparent in his time with Nottinghamshire, has been seen in the establishing of a Local-to-Lord’s community programme. Away from MCC, he also sits on the board of two organisations: Active Westminster and London Sport, a new strategic body that leads the delivery of grassroots sport in London.

Phoenix remain winless as they fall short in another run chase

ECB Reporters Network19-Aug-2023Trent Rockets kept their hope of qualifying for the knock-out stages of The Women’s Hundred alive with a decisive win against Phoenix by 3 runs at Trent Bridge, defending 134 for 6 after Bryony Smith smashed a 64 off 40 balls.A strong performance from the home side’s bowlers gave their side a chance, restricting the Phoenix to 131 for 4 to win by a narrow margin of three runs despite Amy Jones hit 46 not out off 30 balls.Rockets still need to win their final game at The Oval on Monday afternoon, and hope Welsh Fire lose their final two games, with all three results creating a big enough margin for them to leap ahead on net run-rate.

Australia’s stand-in coach Justin Langer was full of praise for David Warner’s newfound professionalism and focus, after he steered Australia home against West Indies with an unbeaten fifty

Daniel Brettig07-Jun-2016So single-minded a Test cricketer was Justin Langer that team-mates have often spoken of the almost monastic fanaticism with which he pursued team and individual success for Australia. So it was telling that he spoke with enormous admiration for the cricketer David Warner has become, epitomised by his busy intensity in Australia’s victory in their tri-series opener against West Indies.The past week in New York and Guyana has been the first time Langer was able to get a look at Warner up close since he resigned as Australia’s assistant coach to take up the head coach role with Western Australia in November 2012. At that point, Warner’s performances were strong enough, but he was on a spiral of bad behaviour that led to his suspension from part of the 2013 Ashes tour for throwing a punch at Joe Root in a Birmingham nightclub.Three years on, Langer speaks of Warner in the same way as he does about former team-mates and close friends Ricky Ponting and Matthew Hayden – an unlikely scenario in the past, and a measure of how far the teetotal and focused Warner has come. This applied not only to the national team, but also to his work for Sunrisers Hyderabad in the IPL, where Warner played a large part in securing the trophy for his side.”I just admire David Warner so much, it’s not just his performances on the field but his actions off the field,” Langer said ahead of Australia’s second match against South Africa on Tuesday. “He’d probably be the first to admit that a few years ago he was pretty hard to manage; he liked to do things his way. But really he looks super-focused at the moment. He’s super-fit, you see his running between the wickets, he’s an elite athlete now and that takes great discipline.”He’s been rewarded for that, he’s been rewarded for his discipline and he should be really proud of the fact he has become a great role model for our young Australian cricketers and cricketers around the world. He’s become so fit and disciplined in what he’s doing and he’s so consistent, that’s what great players do. I really respect David Warner’s career, but I really respect his last year or so, because you can really tell, like a lot of great players do, there’s a trigger moment where he really switched on and he’s now cashing in on that.”Expanding on this theme, Langer said he was delighted by the Australian players’ willingness to adapt to foreign conditions without so much as a warm-up match, a mindset vital for bigger battles ahead, notably next year’s Champions Trophy in England.”What I feel is it’s a fantastic team of young men,” Langer said. “There’s no trouble-makers. They’re all really good blokes. They all work hard, they’re all hungry. We had two things [to focus on before the match against the West Indies]; the first was to adapt and the second was to look after each other. We all get on well, we’ve got good camaraderie and they’re really good people.”I was nervous, particularly about some of those big fast bowlers coming back. They’re all fit and they’ve got some bowling under their belts, but not match practice. I always get nervous when we don’t have match practice. Having said that, I thought one of our main themes was being able to adapt. We’ve got a different coaching staff, we’re in a different country, we’re playing on different wickets. Our main theme was adapting to the conditions and we did that very well.”Looking after each other is a lot easier – I always maintain – when you have that good camaraderie in the group. It’s like the glue that keeps things together when you’re under pressure. I like coming into a team that gets on well and everyone’s good mates.”Langer, never one to take the game or success for granted, was aware South Africa could well be in a fighting mood following their opening defeat to West Indies. Warner’s professionalism and the team’s good spirit should only help Australia’s cause as they seek to notch up another win.

New England cap could be among raft of players in demand with county contract due to expire

Matt Roller01-Jun-2023Josh Tongue was quick to talk up Worcestershire’s role in him winning his first Test cap for England against Ireland at Lord’s this week, but it remains to be seen if he will still be at the county in 2024.Tongue is the first Worcestershire player to make a men’s Test debut for England since Moeen Ali in 2014, and said on Tuesday that his debut would be “a massive thing” for the club. “There are a lot of people at Worcester who have influenced my career,” he added.But Tongue is among a number of Worcestershire players whose deals with the county are due to end this year and June 1, the day of his debut, also marks the date when county cricketers whose contracts expire at the end of a season are free to talk to other clubs.Jack Haynes, the 22-year-old batter, is also out of contract this season, and losing either player would be a significant blow for Worcestershire. Both Haynes and Tongue are graduates of the club’s academy, and were part of England Lions’ tour to Sri Lanka earlier this year.Worcestershire have enjoyed a strong start to the 2023 season on the pitch: they are joint-third in Division Two of the County Championship with two wins from six and have won all three of their T20 Blast games to date.But off it, they are in a state of flux. The club reported an annual loss of just over £200,000 for 2022 and their financial health is dependent on ECB distributions, which account for around 60% of their annual income.The club announced an intention to appoint a director of cricket in July 2022 but the position remains vacant, with Paul Pridgeon – the head of their ‘cricket steering group’, an unpaid role – in charge of contract negotiations with players and their representatives.Related

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There are several other Worcestershire players whose existing contracts are due to expire at the end of this season including Pat Brown, Ben Cox, Dillon Pennington and Mitchell Stanley. They have already lost Moeen and Ed Barnard of late, who both joined Warwickshire last winter.Elsewhere, a number of players who have been part of recent England squads are out of contract. James Bracey and David Payne’s deals with Gloucestershire are up at the end of the year, while Dan Lawrence – who was today released from the England Test squad for T20 Blast duty – is in the final year of his Essex deal and Jordan Cox is in the same situation at Kent.Matt Parkinson, who made his Test debut a year ago this week, dropped out of Lancashire’s Championship side earlier this year and is also in the final year of his contract. He is now free to speak to other counties as he weighs up his future.Parkinson played one game on loan at Durham earlier this year, but they are understood to have lined up his twin brother Callum as their main spin-bowling target, having relied on overseas spinners in the Championship this season.The opening of county cricket’s ‘transfer window’ comes at a time when player contracts are up for discussion, with directors of cricket recently calling for an “urgent” review into the standard 12-month contract due to the proliferation of English players involved in franchise tournaments around the world.

There was only one winner in the battle between India’s opening bowler and Australia’s opening batsman

Andrew McGlashan18-Jan-2019Aaron Finch is having a season to forget and is now on a run of one half-century in 23 international innings across all formats. He has admitted he needs a break, but at the moment that won’t come until April after the away series against India and Pakistan.His ODI summer ended with a tally of 83 runs in six innings against South Africa and India and it came to an end in a manner that has become very familiar in this one-day series: dismissed by Bhuvneshwar Kumar. Here’s a recap of a contest that has only gone one way.Bhuvneshwar Kumar v Aaron Finch this series•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Sydney: b Bhuvneshwar 6Adelaide: b Bhuvneshwar 6Melbourne: lbw Bhuvneshwar 14After this match Finch will be available for Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash. Whether he regains form or not, it won’t be long before battle is rejoined with Bhuvneshwar when Australia travel to India in late February.

Scott Borthwick, David Bedingham lay foundation for victory with 196-run partnership

ECB Reporters Network16-Apr-2023Durham 425 for 9 dec (Bedingham 118, Raine 71, Lees 70, Gibbon 4-92) and 242 for 4 dec (Borthwick 108*, Bedingham 86) beat Worcestershire 366 for 5 dec (Haynes 134, Potts 3-110) and 192 (D’Oliveira 42, Haynes 40, Kuhnemann 5-53) by 121 runsMatthew Kuhnemann claimed a five-wicket haul to guide Durham to a dramatic final-day victory over Worcestershire in their LV= Insurance County Championship Division Two clash at Seat Unique Riverside.Durham coach Ryan Campbell promised that his side would not settle for a draw, and his team were as good as his word. Scott Borthwick and David Bedingham laid the foundation of the victory with a 196-run partnership in a morning onslaught as Durham’s skipper scored his first first-class century in two years.The Pears required 314 to win from 70 overs after Durham declared. However, after being reduced to 3 for 2, the visitors were in a desperate scramble to rescue a draw. Kuhnemann provided the impetus with his skillful left-arm spin, and was supported by Matthew Potts and Paul Coughlin.Adam Finch and Dillon Pennington almost combined with a late rearguard action to deny the hosts, but Kuhnemann removed the latter to secure Durham’s first win of the campaign.Beginning the final day with a 155-run lead, Borthwick and Bedingham found their rhythm and were able to accelerate the run rate. Borthwick set the tempo and reached three figures for the first time since the 2021 season, and his first hundred at the Riverside since his return to the club.Whereas Borthwick’s innings highlighted his timing and touch, Bedingham offered a brutal assault, scoring four sixes, dispatching one onto the health club balcony, in his 87-ball 86 before being caught one ball removed after being skittled by a Finch no-ball.The declaration came 20 minutes before lunch, and there was time for Potts to make inroads as Jake Libby was caught at the second attempt by Michael Jones at first slip. Ed Pollock blasted the new ball in the first innings, but there would be no repeat performance as the left-hander was well caught by a diving Ben Raine at mid-on.Worcestershire needed to calm proceedings, and it fell upon their first-innings centurion Jack Haynes and Azhar Ali to temporarily halt the Durham charge. However, both Ali and Haynes would make mistakes against Kuhnemann, and two further brilliant diving catches from Raine at deep backward square leg put the pressure squarely back on the Pears.Kuhnemann’s impressive spell continued with a beauty to bowl Gareth Roderick to open up an end for the Durham attack. Matthew Waite and Brett D’Oliveira were in a desperate battle to stem the tide. They put on 44 for the sixth wicket, but Coughlin prised out Waite earning his reward for a tight line before Joe Leach became Kuhnemann’s fourth victim for an 18-ball duck.Durham needed something special to turn a promising position into a victory. It was no surprise that it was Potts that broke the game open. He displayed his international quality by moving the ball just enough to find D’Oliveira’s outside edge. Ben Gibbon was powerless to follow his skipper back the pavilion from the next delivery as Potts put Durham on the brink.Pennington saw off the hat-trick ball, but he and Finch faced the daunting task of fending off 19 overs to see out an improbable draw. The two tailenders put up a great fight and saw out 14 of the 19 overs, but Kuhnemann turned one past Pennington to secure a 121-run win for the hosts.

In an international career spanning 18 years, he officiated in 331 matches, the second-most for an umpire

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Aug-2022Rudi Koertzen, the former South African umpire who was part of the ICC’s elite panel, has died aged 73. He died in a car accident while driving from Cape Town to Despatch in Eastern Cape in South Africa, where he lived with his family.Koertzen’s son, Rudi Koertzen jr, confirmed the news. “He went on a golf tournament with some of his friends, and they were expected to come back on Monday, but it seems they decided to play another round of golf,” Koertzen Jr told Algoa FM News, a South African website.Koertzen was part of the ICC’s elite panel of umpires for eight years from 2002 and officiated in 331 international matches, a record at the time of his retirement in 2010, which has since been broken by Pakistan’s Aleem Dar. Along with Dar and West Indies’ Steve Bucknor, Koertzen was one of three umpires to stand in over 100 Tests.Related

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“It is a very big loss foremost for his family and then for South Africa and cricket,” Dar said of Koertzen’s death. “I stood in so many games with him. He was not only very good as an umpire but also an excellent colleague, always very cooperative on field and also always willing to help off the field. Because of the way he was, he was also well-respected by players.”Fellow South African umpire Marais Erasmus said: “Rudi was such a strong character, physically and mentally. He paved the way for South African umpires to get to the world stage. Made us all believe it’s possible. A true legend. As a young umpire, I learnt a lot from him.”At the age of 43, Koertzen’s first international series was India’s tour of South Africa in 1992-93; his first game was the second ODI in Gqeberha (then Port Elizabeth). He went on to become one of the best and most well-respected umpires in the world, and won praise in September 1999 for refusing a bribe to manipulate a match between West Indies and India in Singapore. The 2007 World Cup final, however, was a blip in his career: Koertzen was the third umpire in that match in Barbados, where the officials came in for criticism – and were penalised by the ICC – following a chaotic finish to the game.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

After retiring as an international umpire in 2010, Koertzen published a book, (with Chris Schoeman), in which he addressed the 2007 World Cup final. Koertzen went by the nickname “Slow Death” because of the amount of time he took to raise his finger while giving a batter out.The last representative game Koertzen stood in was in 2011, an IPL match between Royal Challenger Bangalore and Chennai Super Kings in Bengaluru.At the time of his death, he was still umpiring a few games in his hometown of Despatch and helping his local club, Despatch Cricket Club, with preparing pitches.”A legend in his own right passed away this morning and will definitely leave a great void in the cricket world,” Despatch Cricket Club said in tribute today. “We want to express our heartfelt sympathy and empathy to Uncle Rudi Koertzen’s family and loved ones.”Cricket South Africa chairperson Lawson Naidoo said: “Rudi departs at the time when cricket is beginning to enjoy the fruit of his toil. His passing has robbed us of a giant upon [whose] foundation we now stand.”While this is a sad day for cricket in South Africa, we are however comforted by the many lessons of servitude and servant leadership he has left behind for us to embody and emulate.”In his youth, Koertzen played top-division club cricket in Kimberley and was a medium pacer. Before becoming a professional umpire, as he told ESPNcricinfo in an interview in August 2010, he “worked for the railways as a carpenter in Port Elizabeth. Then I worked as a superintendent in the building trade, in the civil engineering section, supervising new buildings and renovations. I worked for them for 28 years and was a semi-professional umpire until … 1993.”