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No thrilling finish but draw with Gloucestershire is enough for Foxes combined with stalemate at Lord’s

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay11-Sep-2025There was no thrilling finale on the field but Leicestershire could celebrate nonetheless after securing the draw with Gloucestershire that, in the event, ensured their promotion to Division One of the Rothesay County Championship.With two fixtures still to play, the result at the Uptonsteel County Ground combined with the draw between Middlesex and Derbyshire at Lord’s guarantees that Leicestershire will finish in the top two in Division Two and end a 22-year-exile from the top division.Set 316 to win from a minimum 74 overs when Gloucestershire, who felt their outside chance of a promotion required them to win here, declared four overs before lunch on 175 for 3 in their second innings, Leicestershire were 93 for 1 from 30.3 when the afternoon’s third interruption for rain proved heavy enough for the final day’s play to be abandoned at around 4.10pm.It is a first promotion for Leicestershire since the County Championship adopted its current two-division format in 2000. Led for most of the season by Australian international Peter Handscomb – now back home preparing for his domestic season – Leicestershire have been the dominant side in Division Two all season after winning five of their first seven matches and suffering only one defeat.They last played in Division One in 2003 and have since become almost perpetual stragglers, finishing bottom of DivisionTwo on eight occasions. In four of those, the last as recently as 2022, they failed to register a single victory, famously going 37 matches over 933 days without a Championship win between September 2012 and June 2015.Leicestershire, whose next target is to secure the points they need to guarantee they are crowned Division Two champions, went into the final day in the comfortable knowledge that while a victory would seal the deal in terms of confirming promotion, a draw might do it anyway depending on the result at Lord’s, or at worst leave them needing minimal gains from their final two fixtures.Gloucestershire’s need for a win, therefore, put the onus on them to set up a finish, to which end they added 165 in 21 overs before declaring just before lunch, setting the home side 316 to win in a minimum 74 overs.Against a Leicestershire attack that was a man down because of Ben Mike’s ongoing hamstring problems, 21-year-old opener Joe Phillips further enhanced his growing reputation with an unbeaten 69 from 73 balls.Ben Charlesworth cleared the midwicket boundary off Logan van Beek and landed back-to-back sixes off Chris Wright in his 56-ball 61 before a miscue to deep third man ended his charge. Ian Holland limited Ollie Price to just 8 but Miles Hammond plundered another 28 from 26 before top-edging into the off side, Holland veering away in his follow-through to be under the ball when it came down.Gloucestershire asked Leicestershire to face four overs before lunch possibly more in hope than expectation. The wicket of Sol Budinger perhaps came as a bonus, the opener making no attempt to rein in his natural attacking instincts but perishing after just 13 deliveries, tempted by a widish ball from Ajeet Singh Dale despite having collected three boundaries already and picking out the fielder at wide third.The visitors’ cause was not helped by showers after lunch, which eventually washed out 43.3 overs of the scheduled 74.Yet there never seemed enough jeopardy in the fourth-day surface to make 10 wickets a realistic possibility. Rishi Patel finished unbeaten on 42 with acting captain Holland on 27. Gloucestershire’s frustration was cushioned a little by taking 15 points for the draw, but the gap between themselves and second-placed Glamorgan remains at more than 30 points.

Franchises could make players direct offers of multi-year contracts worth up to £300,000 per season as a result

Matt Roller01-Oct-2024The Hundred franchises could make players direct offers of multi-year contracts worth up to £300,000 per season if an overhaul to the tournament’s draft system being considered by the ECB is approved. The board is also considering lobbying the UK’s Home Office to permit each team in the Hundred to field a fourth overseas player in the XI, an increase from the current limit of three.The ECB started the process of selling stakes in each of the eight Hundred teams last month and has told prospective investors that total wage bills could increase by over 80% next year. Each team currently spends around £1.9 million per year on salaries across men’s and women’s players and coaches, which is projected to jump to more than £3.5m per year once deals are signed off.If the early-stage plans are approved and the sale process moves quickly, top salaries could climb from £125,000 to £300,000 in the men’s Hundred ahead of the 2025 season, and from £50,000 to over £100,000 in the women’s Hundred. The changes would put the Hundred’s total salary spend second to the IPL among men’s leagues, and second to the WPL among women’s leagues.Related

• Richard Gould: ECB 'unapologetic' about attracting top talent to Men's Hundred

• Richard Gould: Hundred equity sale can future-proof county cricket for '20-25 years'

• Top Men's Hundred salaries to rise by 60 percent in 2025

• ECB rules out 'IPL takeover' of the Hundred

• Disaffected county players discuss Hundred boycott as 'nuclear option' in NOCs row

The Hundred has consistently attracted the best overseas players in the women’s game, but not the men’s. This year, Shaheen Shah Afridi pulled out of his deal with Welsh Fire because Canada’s Global T20 was due to pay him at a more competitive rate, while Pat Cummins revealed he “hadn’t thought” of playing in the Hundred while he was at Major League Cricket.As a result, the ECB is considering allowing an updated recruitment model which would allow each franchise to make up to six direct overseas signings – three men’s and three women’s – on multi-year contracts, following the lead of several other leagues including the BBL, ILT20 and SA20. The existing draft system would remain but with increases in salary bands across the board, particularly at the top end.Vikram Banerjee, who is running the sale process at the ECB, said recently that the Hundred has “fallen behind” a number of other short-form leagues in attracting top men’s players. “We are the sixth highest-payer in the men’s game,” Banerjee told the podcast. “We’re about to go seventh if we stay still at the moment – which we won’t.”Banerjee also suggested that top salaries would grow at a much more significant rate than those at the bottom. “The 15th selection in a 15-man squad, with all due respect, you don’t need to pay huge sums for. They might be an up-and-coming player,” he said. “It’s that top three or four players [per team] that you do need to pay to get their time and their effort to be there, and we have fallen behind.”Top salaries could climb from £50,000 to over £100,000 in the women’s Hundred ahead of the 2025 season•Getty Images

The plans would also see each team able to sign one designated ‘England star’ on a multi-year deal, worth around £100,000 in the women’s competition and £250,000 in the men’s. The proposed increase in overseas players per playing XI from three to four would bring the tournament in line with the global standard set by the IPL, WPL, PSL and SA20.ESPNcricinfo understands that while the plans have been circulated to prospective investors, they are at a relatively early stage and may not come to fruition until 2026, depending on the speed of the ongoing sale process. The ECB has declined to comment.The Hundred’s sale process has come under fire in the past week. Banerjee, the ECB’s director of business operations, conceded that it could take until beyond the 2025 season to complete, and the process was described last week as “a big fat Ponzi scheme” by Lalit Modi, the founder and architect of the IPL who is serving a life ban from the BCCI.”I don’t recognise his particular comments,” Richard Gould, the ECB’s chief executive, told the BBC last week in response to Modi’s criticism of the Hundred’s financial projections. “It wasn’t so long ago that he [Modi] had an article in the saying he wanted to buy the competition for £1 billion.”Gould insisted the ECB are “very confident” in the strength of English cricket. “We’ve got nearly 100 or so interested parties involved in [the Hundred sales process] which is a huge number… Everyone knows that the money that comes in, we want to use it to protect and then supercharge the game throughout our county network and beyond.”The Hundred’s 2025 season will start in early August, immediately after England’s men complete a Test series against India.

England big-hitter reminisces about his new IPL franchise: ‘When I was watching IPL years ago, if they were playing, I’d turn the TV on’

Matt Roller26-Nov-20246:59

Moody: ‘RCB’s top seven looks formidable with Tim David at No.7’

It is a situation that only the vagaries of the IPL auction can explain. Eleven months after attracting no interest from the 10 franchises, Phil Salt attracted a winning bid of INR 11.50 crore – around GBP 1.08 million or USD 1.37 million – from Royal Challengers Bengaluru on Sunday night, and will spend next spring opening the batting with Virat Kohli at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.Despite his snub at last year’s auction, Salt became an integral part of Kolkata Knight Riders’ title-winning side in IPL 2024. Having signed as a replacement player, he scored 435 runs – at a strike rate of 182 – and formed a dynamic opening partnership with Sunil Narine. KKR bid aggressively to get him back on Sunday, but ended up running out of funds.KKR had retention rights on Salt before the auction, but opted to keep hold of six other players instead. “There wasn’t a whole heap of chat around retention,” Salt told ESPNcricinfo. “I feel like, having just won the IPL, they probably had the hardest job of all the franchises, figuring out which direction they were trying to go in with their retentions, so I just sort of left them to it.”Related

• IPL 2025: How the ten teams stack up after the mega auction

• IPL auction: Chahal the most expensive spinner ever, Starc joins the 50-crore club

• Who is Bevon Jacobs, Mumbai Indians' latest under-the-radar recruit?

• Bethell to debut for England in first Test against New Zealand

They entered a bidding war with RCB, but after spending INR 23.75 crore to bring Venkatesh Iyer back, found themselves pulling out. “As you saw, they went hard to try and bring me back,” Salt said. “But with the way the auction went for the different teams up to that point, maybe there wasn’t enough money in the room.”The result is that Salt will form part of a characteristically formidable RCB batting line-up, with head coach Andy Flower confirming he will open with Kohli. “I’ve got a tremendous amount of respect for Virat,” Salt said. “I’ve always had a bit of chat with him – and a laugh and a joke – when I’ve played against him in the past, so I’m looking forward to playing alongside him.”He looks like a natural fit for a franchise associated with fearless batting, and recalls watching Chris Gayle and AB de Villiers playing for them as a teenager. “They’ve got a very clear way of playing the game which is to go out and attack,” Salt said. “They’ve always had the fiery personalities and their batting line-ups have been world-class.”They’re one of a few teams who, when I was watching IPL years ago, if they were playing, I’d turn the TV on. Obviously they’ve got Andy there and Mo Bobat [as director of cricket], and I’m really looking forward to playing under them. Having been around them a little bit, I know that we’re quite similar thinkers on the game in some ways – and their track record speaks for itself.”Phil Salt made quite a mark at KKR at IPL 2024•BCCI

Salt followed the auction from the United Arab Emirates, where he is playing for – and captaining – Team Abu Dhabi in the Abu Dhabi T10. “It was pretty cool,” he said. “Obviously it feels like a long way away at the minute, but I’m very, very excited for it.”He will have two England team-mates for company in Bengaluru: Liam Livingstone, who has spent the last three seasons at Punjab Kings, and IPL newcomer Jacob Bethell. “He’s very committed, and there’s not many people out there that have the skill that he’s got,” Salt said of Bethell. “Hopefully, he does well in his Test debut coming up.”Salt revealed his own ambitions to play Test cricket earlier this year, but his chance to press his case for selection in the County Championship was thwarted by his IPL deal and he has not played a first-class game in over a year. He was mentioned as a contender when Jordan Cox went down injured in New Zealand this week, but Ollie Robinson is the preferred replacement.Salt recently signed his first central contract with England, but has not yet sought talks with either Rob Key or Brendon McCullum to discuss a potential route into the Test side. In any case, there is unlikely to be a vacancy after the New Zealand tour when Jamie Smith returns from paternity leave.”It’s been said before that you don’t have to play a load of red-ball cricket to make a case,” Salt said. “But I’m pretty content with where I’m at, at the minute… It is tricky. I’d have liked to play more. I’d like to play all formats, but the way that the schedule is at the minute for me, that’s not the easiest thing to do.”

“The majority of the team is settled,” Southee said about the final XI

Alex Malcolm28-Feb-2024New Zealand will make a decision just before the toss as to whether they will pick a fourth seamer in Scott Kuggeleijn or a specialist spinner in Mitchell Santner for the first Test against Australia at the Basin Reserve after Wednesday’s rain meant the pitch remained under covers all day.Opener Devon Conway was ruled out on Wednesday morning due to his thumb injury with Will Young retaining his place in the Test XI and moving to the top of the order to open alongside Tom Latham. Daryl Mitchell slots back into No. 5 after missing the second Test against South Africa with a foot issue.Captain Tim Southee, Matt Henry and William O’Rourke will be the three seamers after their success against South Africa, but a decision is yet to be made on the fourth bowler. Southee did not get a look at the pitch on Wednesday due to the persistent Wellington rain and said a decision on the final XI would wait until Thursday morning.Related

• Conway ruled out of opening Test against Australia

• Neil Wagner retires from international cricket

“The majority of the team is settled,” he said. “We’ll have one final look obviously with the weather around and one final decision on whether an extra seamer or a spinner will play, but obviously with Devon Conway’s unfortunate injury Will Young comes in and will open the batting.”Injuries are part of cricket. But it also presents opportunities for other people. Will Young’s coming off 60-odd not out in the Test in Hamilton against South Africa.”New Zealand played four fast bowlers in their last Test in Hamilton with Neil Wagner the fourth seamer in that XI but he has since announced his retirement after being told he would not be selected in this series against Australia.New Zealand coach Gary Stead admitted on Tuesday that not picking a specialist spinner in Hamilton was a mistake after South Africa offspinner Dane Piedt took eight wickets for the match while Rachin Ravindra bagged four and Glenn Phillips two, despite O’Rourke claiming nine on debut to be named Player of the Match.Since the start of 2000, spin bowlers have averaged 40.84 at the Basin with the pace bowlers averaging 31.93. Southee said the presence of Ravindra and Phillips in the top six does give him some confidence that they have spin bowling options if they were to pick four seamers.”Yeah [it does], and I think you throw in Daryl Mitchell as well as another bowling option,” Southee said. “It’s just great to have those guys, like the Australian side have the likes of Cam Green and Mitch Marsh. It helps to balance the side when you’ve got guys in the in the top seven that are able to help out with the ball as well.”Southee said he was excited to see O’Rourke unleashed at Australia’s top order after an outstanding performance on Test debut against South Africa.”I think what we saw in Hamilton was something special from a young guy,” Southee said. “He’s shown glimpses and there’s been something about him. We’ve obviously watched him closely over the last couple of years and he’s got a lot of attributes that we liked and we saw that in his Test debut and it’s exciting to see those guys make that transition from domestic cricket to international cricket and I’m sure he’ll have a long future at the highest level.”There was some surprise within the Australian camp at Wagner’s retirement given his success against Australia’s new opener Steven Smith. Wagner claimed Smith five times in Test cricket at a cost of just 16 runs apiece, including four times in the most recent series the two sides played in 2019-20 with a barrage of short-pitched bowling and a heavy set leg-side field.O’Rourke has the pace and steep bounce to cause Smith and others similar issues on the back foot but Southee said there will be no mandate for any of his newly-formed attack to follow Wagner’s methods against Australia’s best batter.”He’s a quality player,” Southee said. “He’s obviously had a phenomenal record and now he’s moved to the top.”But I think it comes back to the individuals that we select. Obviously, Neil was extremely good at the role that he played. And he had a great tour to Australia a few years back and a lot of success against Steve. I guess you look at the type of bowlers that we will select and the way that they like to operate and all three or four bowlers will be different in the way they operate.”

Second time in Championship history a side has chased over 500 to win, after Middlesex beat Notts in 1925

ECB Reporters Network14-Jun-2023Surrey rewrote history with almost casual ease in the LV= Insurance County Championship on Wednesday, chasing down a target of 501 to beat Kent by five wickets at Canterbury.What threatened to be a pulsating final day instead turned into a one-sided procession as Dom Sibley and Ben Foakes batted mercilessly, eclipsing Surrey’s previous highest chase of 410, made at this venue in 2002, to finish on 501 for 5.Foakes made 124, while Sibley scored what’s believed to be the slowest ever century in the County Championship over the course of 511 minutes and 368 balls. He eventually finished on 140 from 415 balls, seeing Surry home with Jordan Clark after a magnificent feat of concentration and endurance.Three days of violent momentum swings, luck, individual brilliance and human error had left the match almost perfectly poised at the start of day four, with Kent needing seven wickets and Surrey 238 runs.It was the human factor that added the intrigue: without the dropped catches, the “poor” shots and the “bad” balls this would have been a torpid 700 v 700 bore draw. The final day, however, offered almost none of the drama of the previous three.Only once in the history of the Championship had a side chased over 500 to win: when Patsy Hendren hit an unbeaten 206 as Middlesex scored 502 to beat Notts by four wickets at Trent Bridge in 1925.The reigning champions did it with a determination that belied everything that had gone before. Needing under three an over, they homed in on the target like an armour-plated milk float: slow but bombproof.The morning session was almost ideal for Surrey. Foakes and Sibley saw off the new ball and scored predominantly in singles, at one point going ten overs without a boundary. Foakes survived an lbw appeal from Wes Agar but they were otherwise unthreatened.At lunch it was 335 for 3 and a Surrey win was looking as inevitable as an Arsenal title collapse. There was a fleeting moment of controversy when Kent were convinced Hamid Qadri had Foakes, on 73, caught behind, but it was an isolated outbreak of excitement during an almost catatonic afternoon.Sibley finally reached three figures when he drove Joey Evison for four, beating the previous record, understood to be Jason Gallian’s 453-minute ton for Lancashire against Derbyshire at Blackpool in 1994. He just beat his partner to the landmark: Foakes took two from Jack Leaning in the next over to bring up a relatively quickfire hundred from 198 deliveries.With the target now under a hundred, Surrey swapped the milk float for a Lamborghini. The 130th over went for 20 but Foakes then holed out to Joe Denly and was caught by Matt Quinn on the boundary, ending a partnership of 207.It was 452 for four at tea, by which time Kent’s members had long been delivered from the hell of hope and the smattering of Surrey fans by the Old Dover Road entrance were savouring every minute.Will Jacks was out for 19 caught by Agar off Arshdeep Singh but by then just 40 were needed. Clark sealed the win with a single off Denly and Surrey exited the field to a fully deserved ovation from home and away fans alike.

There is a 60% chance of rain around the match start time

Ashish Pant18-May-20244:26

How do RCB make best use of Maxwell?

The morning of Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s (RCB’s) high-stakes IPL 2024 game against Chennai Super Kings (CSK) was bright and sunny, but as the day progressed, the sun was mostly out of view, hidden behind clouds. There remains a forecast of thundershowers and a 60% chance of rain around the time the match is scheduled to start, at 7.30pm local time.It’s a game that will decide the identity of the last team in the IPL 2024 playoffs, but the weather could have a big say in how things pan out at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.The Indian Meteorological Department has predicting a “generally cloudy sky with one or two spells of rain or thundershowers”.Related

• Gaikwad the captain faces his sternest test yet

• What RCB did right after it began so horribly wrong

• Patidar: 'I should know that I am the best, nothing else matters'

• IPL 2024 scenarios – RCB vs CSK for final playoff spot

Fans who are expected to fill the ground can, however, take heart from the way things went on match eve. Rain and thunderstorms had been forecast for the evening but, while it was cloudy for the most part, the rain never arrived in central Bengaluru. Both RCB and CSK trained for over an hour without any disruption.The city has received consistent rainfall over the last couple of weeks after a spell of uncharacteristically hot weather. However, it has remained relatively dry in most places in the last three days.Even if it does rain, the Chinnaswamy Stadium has an excellent drainage system and is one of the few grounds in India with a subsurface aeration system, which allows play to begin 30 minutes after the rain stops.RCB’s chances of making the playoffs will end in case of a washout. After losing seven of their first eight matches, they made a sterling comeback, winning their next five games. They are currently on 12 points with a net run rate of 0.387, while CSK are on 14 with an NRR of 0.538. To go past CSK’s NRR and make it to the playoffs, assuming a score of 200, RCB need to beat CSK by 18 runs or chase down the target with about 11 balls to spare. A truncated game will make that task tougher.”The good thing is that it is crystal clear what we need to do,” Malolan Rangarajan, RCB’s head of scouting, said on the eve of the game. “Doesn’t matter if it is a 20-over game or a five-, six-over game. For us, it might be 3.1 or 3.4 [the number of overs in which RCB may have to chase the target in case of a five-over game] because there are other intricacies within that. We are not going to be going inside thinking we need to restrict 18 runs or 11 balls. We are going to go there, try to stay consistent with what we have done.”For CSK, the equation is simple: a win, a washout, or even a narrow defeat is enough for them to make it to the final four.”The weather and these kind of things we don’t have control over,” Dwayne Bravo, the CSK bowling coach, said. “We don’t try to bring up things that we don’t have control over. It’s another game for us to push for a playoffs spot and we’re really looking ahead to the challenge against a very good team tomorrow.”

Saif Zaib passes 1000 runs for season but Northants wobble again after conceding 364 deficit

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay24-Jul-2025Northamptonshire 261 (Zaib 82, Higgins 4-51) and 64 for 3 trail Middlesex 625 for 8 dec by 300 runsRyan Higgins moved to the top of Middlesex’s wicket-taking chart for the season as his side closed in on a Rothesay County Championship victory over Northamptonshire at Merchant Taylors’ School.Higgins finished with 4 for 51, with Noah Cornwell taking 3 for 48 as the visitors were made to follow on 364 behind – and the medium-pacer then grabbed two quick top-order wickets second time around to further improve his season’s tally to 32.Northamptonshire stumbled to 64 for 3 at stumps and their plight would have been deeper but for rain stoppages and Saif Zaib’s first-innings 82, which made him the county’s first player to register 1000 first-class runs in a season since Ben Duckett in 2016.Zaib was almost the fastest to that landmark across the Championship circuit, but the 27-year-old narrowly missed out to Surrey’s Dom Sibley, who got there just 15 minutes earlier at Scarborough.Middlesex rotated their seam quartet when the visitors resumed on 126 for 4, but their spin options were limited after Zafar Gohar, tumbling to deal with George Bartlett’s cover drive, landed awkwardly on his shoulder and had to leave the field.Bartlett, having steered Tom Helm neatly through gully for four, repeated the stroke later in the over and picked out the fielder this time, but Zaib continued to progress steadily as he built a partnership with Rob Keogh.Keogh, who had injured a finger while fielding on day one, did well to withstand a couple of Helm deliveries that rose sharply down the slope and helped Zaib to add 55 before Cornwell had him caught down the leg side.The left-hander went on to pass 50 for the ninth time in this season’s Championship, ushering Northamptonshire’s total beyond 200 before rain arrived to send the players off for an early lunch.Dom Leech provided spirited support, finding the boundary four times in his knock of 22 while Zaib capitalised on successive short balls from Leus du Plooy, pulling the slow left-armer for six and four. Higgins broke the seventh-wicket stand of 64 with two dismissals in as many deliveries, with Leech caught top-edging a hook before Ben Sanderson was lbw without scoring to leave the visitors eight down.A more persistent spell of rain held up play for the next hour and a half – but it took just three balls for Cornwell to wrap up Northamptonshire’s first innings, knocking out Zaib’s off stump with one that seamed back before cleaning up Yuzvendra Chahal with a yorker.After another weather-induced delay, Higgins reclaimed centre stage, winning what looked like a borderline lbw decision against Ricardo Vasconcelos and castling Aadi Sharma next ball to leave the visitors reeling at 10 for 2. James Sales began redressing the balance with a series of positive shots in his knock of 26, but he attempted one too many and lost his middle stump to Toby Roland-Jones.Stand-in skipper Lewis McManus remained defiant, punching Helm off the back foot to the fence to reach 21 not out before the light deteriorated sufficiently for the umpires to bring play to a close.

Leicestershire stroll to target for only their second win of the season

ECB Reporters Network09-Jun-2023A maiden T20 century by Rishi Patel powered Leicestershire Foxes to an impressive six-wicket Vitality Blast victory over Durham at the Uptonsteel County Ground, Grace Road.The 24-year-old right-hand bat – dropped on 38 – struck 103 from 49 balls with 12 fours and four sixes as the Foxes cruised home with 14 balls to spare with comfortably their most emphatic performances of an otherwise dismal season to date, Lewis Hill hitting the winning runs to finish on an unbeaten 54 from 41 balls.It was Durham’s second defeat by Leicestershire in six days although the Foxes remain bottom of the North Group table, having lost their other six games.Aussie Ashton Turner’s unbeaten 60 from 38 balls lifted Durham’s total to a challenging 172 for 4 against a makeshift Foxes bowling attack from which key man Naveen ul-Haq was missing though injury. Ollie Robinson made 30 from 31 balls and Graham Clark 27 from just 14 in the powerplay but spinner Callum Parkinson (2 for 21) and teenage pace bowler Josh Hull (1 for 26) made sure that the visitors were never able to dominate.Asked to bat first, Durham posted 59 for 2 from the opening block of six, 35 of those runs coming in two overs after the visitors went hard against the two new faces in the Foxes attack, with Matt Salisbury and Tom Scriven drafted in for their county Blast debuts after injuries to Mikey Finan and Will Davis as well as Afghan international Naveen.Salisbury, who did not play in the Blast during his four years at Durham but made eight appearances for Essex in 2014, took a wicket with his fifth ball against his ex-team-mates when Alex Lees swung optimistically and was bowled, but took some punishment in his second over as Clark and Michael Jones plundered 17 runs, the pair having taken 18 off Scriven in the previous over, although Clark survived a difficult chance to point on four.Hull finished the powerplay well for the Foxes as Jones miscued to mid-on and when left-arm spinner Parkinson produced a fine, full delivery to trap Clark in the crease in the next over, Durham were 61 for 3. At halfway, with Colin Ackermann and Rehan Ahmed applying the squeeze, they were 80 for 3, advancing to 112 for 4 from 15 overs after Parkinson made another big breakthrough, bowling Robinson to register his 100th Blast wicket for the county.The Foxes would have been disappointed not to claim more wickets in the last five, which saw Turner and Bas de Leede swell the total by 62 runs, both clearing the ropes of Rehan’s legspin, but Hull, the 18-year-old left-arm quick of whom they have high hopes, produced an impressive final over costing just eight runs to finish with 1 for 26.Needing to score at 8.65 runs per over, the home side suffered an immediate setback, losing Nick Welch to the fifth ball of their reply as he missed an attempted sweep against left-arm spinner Liam Trevaskis, but recovered well, with Hill pulling and scooping profitably and Patel hitting powerfully down the ground, to be 69 for 1 from six, although the latter had an escape when Ben Raine dropped what should have been a straightforward chance at wide long-on.Back-to-back boundaries off Turner took Patel to a 21-ball half-century and two more off legspinner Nathan Sowter’s next over brought the target down to 70 with 70 balls remaining.And there was no holding the Foxes back on this occasion with Patel in destructive mood, needing just 24 more balls to reach his hundred, getting there his second six in three balls over wide long-on off Sowter, and although it all ended anticlimactically in the next over as an ill-advised decision to go for a second run to de Leede at midwicket off Wayne Parnell saw him run out.Nonetheless, the home side went into the final five overs needing just 21 to win and though Parnell dismissed Colin Ackermann, who chopped on, and Louis Kimber, caught behind, with consecutive balls, to induce a little anxiety in the home crowd, only 14 more were needed, Hill finishing the job by pulling Sowter for his third six before driving the same bowler through extra cover for four next ball.

Seamer’s 4 for 16 closes out tense win over Originals, set up by Capsey-van Niekerk partnership

Matt Roller09-Aug-2023Ryana MacDonald-Gay gave Oval Invincibles, the two-time defending champions, their first win of the season, taking 4 for 16 to close out a tense five-run win over Manchester Originals on a balmy afternoon in South London.Originals needed 16 to win off 14 balls after Deandra Dottin hit the third six of her innings at The Kia Oval, taking her to 41 off 19. But she played out four consecutive dot balls to give Invincibles a cushion heading into the final 10.MacDonald-Gay, the 19-year-old seamer, backed her slower balls at the death and, after gathering Alice Capsey’s throw to run Fi Morris out, she had Dottin caught at short third and Kathryn Bryce mistiming to midwicket. That left 13 required off the final set of five balls, and Eva Gray closed out Invincibles’ win.The result was set up by Capsey and Dane van Niekerk, whose third-wicket partnership of 61 in 37 balls enabled Invincibles to post 128 for 7 – a much-improved showing on the 80 all out they managed in the first completed innings of their title defence in a three-wicket defeat to Welsh Fire on Sunday night.But it was MacDonald-Gay who clinched the points. She was an ever-present for Invincibles last season but was used sparingly with the ball in the latter half of the tournament and did not bowl in their last three games, including the final. This was the first time in her Hundred career she had bowled all of her permitted 20 deliveries.She struck with her third ball, hitting Laura Wolvaardt on the pad and having her lbw on review for 27, just as she was starting to move through the gears, and in her second set of five she had Ami Campbell caught at point, skying a slower ball to Marizanne Kapp.Dottin thumped her down the ground for four in her third set, but her last cost only three runs as she backed her variations to finish with the fourth-best bowling figures of the competition so far.”She’s been brilliant for us at South East Stars, coming in at the back end and bowling her slower balls,” Capsey said of her team-mate. “She bowls them brilliantly and that’s one of her strengths and one of the reasons she’s so valued in our team. Whenever she comes on, she impacts the game.”She was bowling at Deandra Dottin, one of the world’s best players. That shows her character, and what a great bowler she is. She really held her nerve and backed her strengths. That’s all you can ask for from a bowler. She kept us in the game.”Invincibles started slowly with the bat, with Mahika Gaur striking early. Gaur, the towering teenage left-arm seamer, bowled 15 of the first 20 balls and had Lauren Winfield-Hill lbw, with figures of 1 for 7 from her first three sets.Sophie Ecclestone had delayed her own entry before striking in her first set, having Suzie Bates stumped, and Capsey struggled for timing early on. She was dropped on 28 by Morris, then given out lbw one ball later only to successfully review the on-field decision.She largely played second fiddle to van Niekerk but powered Ecclestone back over her head for a straight six, and was stumped immediately after reaching a 40-ball half-century, her first in a competitive game since the end of May.Van Niekerk scored quickly against Originals’ spinners, who were held back until the end of the innings, crashing a six and a four off successive balls from Amanda-Jade Wellington as Invincibles eyed a late surge towards 140.Instead, they slid to 128 for 7 as van Niekerk’s dismissal – caught at long-on off Wellington – preceded a flurry of three run-outs in the final six balls. Much to Invincibles’ relief, the mini-collapse did not prove costly.

Phoebe Litchfield scores unbeaten 42 to see home side to victory in low-scorer

Ciara Fearn03-Aug-2023Northern Superchargers 112 for 3 (Litchfield 42*) beat Birmingham Phoenix 110 for 8 (Devine 46, Davidson-Richards 3-20) by seven wickets England allrounder Alice Davidson-Richards stole the show for Northern Superchargers as they beat Birmingham Phoenix by seven wickets to get their Hundred campaign off to the perfect start.Davidson-Richards took three wickets for just 11 runs from her 20 balls as well as taking two catches and claiming a brilliant run-out in an excellent team display from Superchargers, as they restricted Birmingham Phoenix to a total of 110 for 8 off their 100 balls.Australian Phoebe Litchfield top-scored for the home team with an unbeaten 42 as they eased their way to victory with 22 balls to spare with Marie Kelly also adding a valuable 24 at the top of the order.The visitors had got off to a flying start with New Zealand veteran Sophie Devine hitting England’s Kate Cross for two boundaries from her first set of five balls. But Superchargers quickly pulled things back with Cross claiming the wicket of Eve Jones for 10 before England wicketkeeper Amy Jones became Davidson-Richard’s first victim when she holed out to Leah Dobson on the square leg boundary for 13.Devine took centre stage throughout the Phoenix innings scoring an entertaining 46 runs off 36 balls before she was superbly run out by Davidson-Richards’ direct hit from mid-off. The Phoenix middle-order failed to offer any meaningful support to Devine with Erin Burns, Tess Flintoff and Emily Arlott all falling cheaply with Georgia Wareham’s caught-and-bowled dismissal of Burns a particular highlight.The hosts were brilliant in the field with Phoenix reliant on late-order runs from Abigail Freeborn and Issy Wong to get them up over the 100 mark, Wong hitting a mighty six into the crowd at one point before she became Linsey Smith’s one wicket.Kelly and Jemimah Rodrigues gave Superchargers an ideal start with a partnership of 23 for the first wicket. Rodrigues’ knock of 16 consisted of four boundaries before she was trapped in front by Wong.Kelly was bowled reverse sweeping by Katie Levick for 24 but Litchfield quickly took charge of the innings as she steered Superchargers home with an unbeaten 42 off 29 balls including seven fours. But this was Davidson-Richards’ day and she completed the win with a towering straight six off Hannah Baker to end an excellent showing by Superchargers.