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Next phase of training includes social-distancing exemptions

Matt Roller25-May-2020The path for England’s return to international cricket has become clearer after the UK government published stage two guidelines for the resumption of elite sporting training.Stage two of competitive training sees players given exemptions on social-distancing rules where necessary as part of training, with the decision on when to move from the first to the second stage at the ECB’s discretion.Eighteen bowlers returned to training on a strict individual basis at the end of last week, with players adhering to a precise set of protocols regarding personal hygiene and social distancing under the supervision of a physiotherapist.ALSO READ: West Indies CEO ‘increasingly confident’ on England tourEngland are likely to name an enlarged squad of up to 45 players later this week, with players gradually returning to training as required. Batsmen and wicketkeepers are due to begin training on Monday, June 1, while white-ball players are likely to return later. The first Test against West Indies is pencilled in for July 8, while the first limited-overs internationals are likely to be a three-match ODI series against Ireland at the end of July/start of August.The new guidance says that stage two training is anticipated to “start with smaller ‘clusters’ of 2-3 athletes and eventually progress to larger groups of 4-12 athletes, and ultimately full-team training”. It also stresses that social distancing should be maintained “at all other times aside from technical training”.The guidance differs slightly from that issued by the ICC last week, which encouraged players to maintain social distancing during training.It is highly likely that players will be encouraged to continue practices from individual training, such as bowlers bringing their own set of balls, regular use of disinfectant wipes, and washing hands regularly. The guidance recommends keeping communal areas like changing rooms closed, and re-states that athletes and staff should be made clear on their option to opt out at any point.The ECB should also ensure that coaches and athletes are “briefed on, understand and are able to operate within the risk mitigation strategy associated with stage two training”, the guidance states.”This new guidance marks the latest phase of a carefully phased return to training process for elite athletes, designed to limit the risk of injury and protect the health and safety of all involved,” Nigel Huddleston, the sports minister, said.”We are absolutely clear that individual sports must review whether they have the appropriate carefully controlled medical conditions in place before they can proceed, and secure the confidence of athletes, coaches and support staff.”Given the wide-ranging input we have received from medical experts, we believe these pragmatic measures should provide further reassurance that a safe, competitive training environment can be delivered, as we work towards a restart of professional sport behind closed doors when it is safe to do so.”A Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) statement said: “The elite sport return-to-training guidance intends to minimise the risk to the elite sports community, while also minimising any pressure elite sport places on healthcare workers and the wider community during the resumption of training. Like all changes to current measures it will be kept under review in accordance with the government’s Covid alert system.”

Charl Langeveldt, South Africa’s bowling coach, has admitted that it will be “hard” for Kagiso Rabada to break into the Test side due to the presence of Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel

Firdose Moonda15-Sep-20151:51

SA bowling coach Langeveldt impressed with fast-bowling reserves

Pace, precision and a penchant for plucking wickets would ordinarily lead to a Test debut, but 20-year old Kagiso Rabada may have to wait just a little while longer to wear the whites. Rabada is part of South Africa’s squad in all three formats for the upcoming tour of India, but remains a reserve in the Test ranks for now.”We’re winning Test matches at the moment, so it’s going to be hard for Kagiso to get into the side and India is going to be even harder because we might even play two spinners,” Charl Langeveldt, South Africa’s bowling coach, said at a training camp for the Johannesburg-based bowlers. “We’ve got three seam bowlers that have done well for South Africa for a number of years now but if an injury comes along then you never know.”That means Dale Steyn, Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel remain South Africa’s first choice, but this will be the first time they bowl as a trio in India. The trio first came together in November 2011 and have since toured other parts of the sub-continent such as Sri Lanka where Steyn, in particular, was impressive. Langeveldt expects nothing less even in India.”Our fast bowling attack is still key. Steyn bowls well with the ball reversing and with the new ball; although it’s an SG ball, he does bowl well and he gets the ball to reverse,” Langeveldt said.Where Langeveldt expects things to be different is with Philander, who could move from a frontline attacking bowler to the last line of defence.”When Vernon bowled in Bangladesh, he was was one of our best bowlers. He made guys play a lot more than others,” Langeveldt explained. “If he can strike with the new ball in India, that’s key for us. He brings that consistency to our attack and he can keep the run rate down. He went for about one-and-a-half runs an over in Bangladesh recently.”He didn’t get the results but if you talk about keeping the run-rate down and creating pressure from one end while the spinner is attacking from the other end, he can do that.”A strategy where Philander is used as a container could also mean a return for Imran Tahir as the specialist spinner ahead of Simon Harmer and Dane Piedt, both offspinners. That move could further confine Rabada to the bench, where Langeveldt said he will learn what’s expected of him when he makes the step up.”I will make sure he is prepared so if the opportunity does come he is ready to play. I can’t say when he’s going to play, it’s out of my control, it’s out of his control, all he can control is that he will be ready.”Part of the preparation will involve the study of reverse swing, something Langeveldt believes Rabada can master. “KG has got a good wrist position so the ball will reverse for him as well,” he said.”It’s all about looking after the ball. That’s the key to teach him now: to prepare the ball, to look to shine, even throwing from the boundary, those are the things we will discuss. Everyone knows how to prepare the ball for when it does reverse, or when it is reversing or how to get it to reverse.”The more Rabada learns, the more the rest will have to look over their shoulder, which is exactly what Langeveldt wants. Already, Rabada is holding down a fairly regular place in South Africa’s limited-overs sides and with time, he is expected to challenge for a Test spot.”You want a battery of bowlers who are competing. When you’ve got guys competing for the same spot, everyone will lift their game – a senior player will lift his game,” Langeveldt said, while warning his bowlers that no one is safe. “I just don’t want to say he is going to play and that’s it. You have to earn your rights to play for South Africa, and I am a big fan of competition.”

New Zealand put up 173 on the board thanks to Conway’s fifty, but it wasn’t enough

Alagappan Muthu22-Dec-2020Pakistan really rate Mohammad Rizwan. Their followers might continue to doubt him. But the team itself is firmly behind the wicketkeeper-batsman. And that belief is a powerful thing. It lifts people and makes them do extraordinary things.That was the case in Napier, where Rizwan led his team to one of their best ever wins in T20Is. His 89 off 59 was the centrepiece of Pakistan’s fourth-highest chase in the shortest format.

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New Zealand did well to get a strong total on the board thanks to Devon Conway’s half-century at the back end of the innings and as hard as they tried to defend it, the dew that came down in the evening, along with a hamstring injury to Ish Sodhi, were odds too great to overcome.The change bowlerFaheem Ashraf started his spell with a lot of wobble seam deliveries. Mostly because he was bowling at a time when the pitch offered grip to virtually every kind of change-up delivery. This is what has been missing from Pakistan’s game all series. The ability to read the conditions early and adapting to them quickly.The allrounder’s impact was immediate. He took out captain Kane Williamson with a back of a length ball that kept a touch low and didn’t come onto the bat. Then he produced a flash of genius when he went through the in-form Tim Seifert with a ball that decked in off the pitch and took out the top of off stump.New Zealand had made a strong start – 47 for 2 at the end of the powerplay – but Ashraf dragged them back beautifully.Devon Conway acknowledges the applause on getting to his fifty•AFP/Getty Images

The Con manNew Zealand found themselves having to re-start their innings all over again. But they suffered a serious blow in the 15th over when they lost Glenn Phillips – once again the slower ball doing the trick. The score was 109. There were only 35 balls remaining. Time was running out.Being out there batting in a situation like that can feel suffocating. But Conway, playing only his sixth international game, stepped up in a way that suggests he will be a long-time presence in this team.He is electric through the off side, as Shaheen Afridi found out immediately after taking that Phillips wicket. Two scorching cover drives kickstarted New Zealand’s push in the slog overs. And it also featured an effortless flick for six off the extreme pace of Haris Rauf.Conway does seem vulnerable at the start of his innings – as most batsmen do – but once he’s through that tough period he really knows how to make it count. Because of him, New Zealand hit 64 runs in the last 5.5 overs.The match-winnerIt began in discomfort. Trent Boult’s inswingers buzzed around his pads. Tim Southee very nearly had him bowled. The new ball under lights was doing some tricky things.But Rizwan, having made starts and thrown it away in both previous matches of this series, was determined not to make the same mistake again. He was also helped by a two-paced pitch turning into a batting beauty thanks to the dew.Still, some of his strokeplay was hair-raising good. Any time the New Zealand bowlers strayed even slightly on his pads, he was ready with a range of shots. The scoop over fine leg. The flick over square leg. The pull over midwicket. He got 70 of his 89 runs on the leg side.Rizwan controlled the chase from start to finish and though his wicket in the last over did create a little excitement, Pakistan needed only three further runs to win and those were struck in emphatic fashion as Iftikhar Ahmed calmly sent the ball into orbit above McLean Park.

Disciplinary panel rules that Taunton wicket displayed “excessive unevenness of bounce”

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2019Somerset will start the 2020 County Championship season on minus-12 points after a disciplinary panel ruled that the pitch prepared for their title decider against Essex at Taunton was ‘poor’.In a rain-affected game that Somerset had to win in order to overtake Essex, 21 wickets fell in 148 overs, of which 17 were to spin. A Cricket Discipline Committee (CDC) panel ruled that the pitch demonstrated “excessive unevenness of bounce” after meeting at Lord’s on Monday, thus giving it a ‘poor’ rating under the ECB’s pitch regulations.Somerset accepted the charge that the pitch was correctly rated poor, but denied that it was not the best-quality pitch they could have prepared. The panel struck down their objection, thus handing the club a 24-point deduction, though 12 of those have been suspended.Somerset have two weeks to appeal the decision. A club statement said that they would “await the full report from the Cricket Disciplinary Commission before considering our next course of action”.The club have pushed the bounds of the ECB’s regulations in recent seasons. In 2018, they escaped a penalty for their surface in a Championship match against Lancashire, which finished in two days and was found to have “demonstrated excessive turn”. But while the CDC did not penalise Somerset, they did warn that “the club should expect any proven breach of ECB’s pitch regulations in future to result in a points deduction”.Somerset recently appointed a new groundsman, following the departure of Simon Lee – whose final game in the role was the Essex fixture – to the Ageas Bowl. Coincidentally, they have appointed Scott Hawkins, who was deputy head groundsman at Chelmsford for several years, and more recently worked at La Manga in Spain.While Lee’s pitches came in for criticism from some quarters – Angus Fraser, Middlesex’s director of cricket, claimed the surface for a relegation clash against Somerset in 2017 was “doctored” and “a disgrace” – the club’s hierarchy thought highly of his ability to prepare a pitch to their specifications.Essex registered their frustrations with the pitch at the time. Head coach Anthony McGrath said the track had “turned from ball one and some deliveries have gone through the surface”, while captain Ryan ten Doeschate said he had “been stressing the severity of how bad that pitch is… they’ve really taken a risk here by producing this wicket, but I’m sure we would have done as well.”The decision raises the question as to what might have happened if Somerset had won the deciding game. They would have overtaken Essex, but not by more than 12 points, thus leaving open the possibility that the destination of the Championship would have been decided in a committee room at Lord’s, rather than on the field.It also confirms that Somerset’s off-field position is far from ideal going into 2020: they are currently without a chairman, a chief executive and a chief operating officer, though there have been recent contract extensions for Jack Leach and captain Tom Abell.

Allrounder says missing 2021 World Cup through injury helped development as a key cog in T20 side

Vithushan Ehantharajah14-Nov-2022Sam Curran has admitted he spent the last few weeks of the T20 World Cup asking the relevant seven members of England’s squad what it was like to win the 2019 50-over World Cup. Along with the buzz of success after so much hard work, they confirmed being able to say you had won a World Cup, putting you in an exclusive club among English sportspeople, was a perk that did not get old. “Now to be in that position to say I’ve won one is very cool,” he said.The 24-year-old can also let people know he was Player of the Match in the final, with 3 for 12 against Pakistan at the MCG, and moreover the Player of the Tournament with 13 wickets – joint second from just 22.4 overs – at 11.38. Depending on how well-versed the company he finds himself in, he might even let them know he answered England’s call for a death bowler in emphatic fashion.But Curran feels the overall prize is much more satisfying. Not least because it is a declaration that makes everything that came before it worthwhile – vindicating the hard work and the tough times. For Curran, the latter was a lower back injury that ruled him out of the 2021 T20 World Cup in the UAE,Related

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“I don’t care about the injury,” Curran declared with a smile. “I can call myself a world champion, which is pretty cool. Obviously missed the last tournament and was gutted and the guys lost in the semi-final. But there was no real talk about that this year, it was just we’ve got a job on our hands.”Curran, though, does care. Or at least he recognises the opportunity the injury provided him. “I think I can look back at my injury maybe as a positive. I got a little bit stronger and it was the first bit of a break since I started playing.”Part of the rehabilitation back at his county Surrey involved getting him more robust physically, leading to far more gym work than he would usually be able to do given the relentless schedule. There was also the opportunity to work on fine-tuning his action with Surrey bowling coach Azhar Mahmood, which involved working on achieving more bounce by having his arm slightly taller and not closing in on himself as he delivered the ball.It meant when his captain Jos Buttler sat him down on the tour of Pakistan to talk about a role he saw Curran playing with the ball, which involved being able to perform in the powerplay, middle overs and at the death, he had the requisite skills to excel.”I think maybe it was a bit of freshness and doing a little bit of work back at Surrey,” Curran said of how the break helped. “Getting a little bit stronger, working on alignment. I think that’s again confidence: when you’re playing well and feeling in good rhythm you can naturally get a bit more of a buzz towards the crease.”These grounds in Australia are probably suited to the way I wanted to bowl and make guys hit me towards the bigger boundaries. It’s my first time playing in Australia so that’s been a great challenge and I’ve loved it because we’ve won the tournament so maybe I’ll keep coming back here more.”Curran was full of praise for Ben Stokes’ contribution•AFP/Getty Images

In terms of inspiration as a death bowler, there was no one in particular, he said. What nuggets garnered from around him came through conversations with bowling coach David Saker and the rest of the attack. There was, however, one man Curran describes as a constant source of inspiration to him and many others within English cricket – fellow allrounder, Ben Stokes.”When Stokesy was out there, geez…” started Curran before losing his thoughts thinking of the innings of 52 not out that eventually took England to their target of 138 with an over to spare. “He’s done it so many times.”I’ve looked up to him for so long and, phwoar, he’s got so much guts and passion and he just does it time after time.”There isn’t too much similar to Curran and Stokes. One looks like he’s due to hit puberty, the other looks like he’s been through it twice. But there is an overriding sense that, like Stokes, Curran has a knack for the big occasion. Maybe not as bombastically as his team-mate, but enough to consistently fulfil a role for England bowling late in the innings when batters target you most without being fazed.”I probably wouldn’t have loved being in the middle when we needed that – he made it look very easy,” Curran responded when it is suggested he would have enjoyed the pressure of the chase. Really? “No, I probably wouldn’t!”I’ve looked up to him [Stokes], he’s always contributing to all three phases of the game, bat, ball and in the field. That’s what you strive to to do – be there in the moment when the crunch time is. He’s done that so many times recently, that gives you inspiration and gives you confidence in the dugout when he’s out in the middle.”Curran might not realise it just yet, but, like Stokes, team-mates and England fans alike will feel a similar comfort going forward whenever the ball is in his hand. He has more than earned that trust after ensuring he, along with this England team, can call themselves “world champions”.

Medium-pacer has 179 first-class wickets at 18.28 since start of 2017 season

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2020Darren Stevens will still be a contracted county cricketer at the age of 45 after signing another one-year extension to his Kent deal.Stevens, the canny allrounder whose medium pace gives top-order batsmen across the country nightmares, has taken 20 Bob Willis Trophy wickets at an average of 19.00 this season, recently taking his 800th first-class wicket.He was all set to be released by Kent last season before an astonishing late-season run of form – including a career-best 237 against Yorkshire at Headingley – earned him an extension.ALSO READ: Stevens ‘ecstatic’ after late-season stardust forces Kent into contract U-turn (2019)“I’m thrilled to commit another year to Kent,” Stevens said. “I love playing for this county and it’s no secret that I didn’t want this shortened season to be the way I finished up. So I’m delighted that my recent form has shown I still have a lot left to give to the club. I’m feeling great at the moment and really driven. We have a great squad here at Kent, and it’s definitely an exciting place to be.”I’d also like to thank the members and supporters for their continued support. We’ve definitely missed them at the ground this year and I look forward to being able to play in front of them again as soon as possible.”Paul Downton, Kent’s director of cricket, said: “Darren has once again shown himself to be one of our most effective bowlers in first-class cricket this season. He has played in all four Bob Willis Trophy matches and proved to us that he is still an integral part of our bowling attack with the red ball.”His wealth of experience is also invaluable as we continue to build a team capable of winning trophies.”Stevens’ record in recent seasons is made all the more remarkable by the fact he hardly bowled early in his career. He took only six first-class wickets between his debut in 1997 and the end of the 2004 season, and first passed the 20-wicket mark in a single year in 2010.But he has been almost unplayable in first-class cricket since 2017, taking 179 wickets at 18.28 including 16 five-wicket hauls. It was widely assumed that he would be less effective in Division One after enjoying most of his success in the second tier, but he took 52 top-flight wickets at 17.57 last season.

A dropped chance off Kohli was just one of the moments lost, says West Indies captain

By Aishwarya Kumar15-Aug-2019In the sixth over of India’s chase in the third ODI in Port of Spain, Virat Kohli, batting on 11, was surprised by a Keemo Paul delivery that went past him as he tried to make room to play on the leg side and caught an inside edge. Behind the stumps, Shai Hope couldn’t get enough of his gloves on the ball and dropped it. Kohli went on to score an unbeaten 114 and clinch the match for India. It was a chance that Jason Holder rued at the end of the match.”We have got to hold our chances and we didn’t hold them today. [Kohli] made us pay for it,” Holder said at the press conference. “Credit to him he batted really well and he won the game for India in the end.”They got off to a really good start and so did we. I think it was a really, really good wicket for cricket. Conditions got a little tougher in the afternoon after the rain fell. The ball was a bit wet and the outfield was obviously very wet, too. It didn’t work for us today.”Before the match, Carlos Brathwaite had said that the team wasn’t playing as badly as results suggested and the problem for the side came down to executing the critical moments. That held true in the third ODI, too. There were times, with bat and ball, when West Indies looked like they had the upper hand. Like that opening stand of 115 in nearly 11 overs between Chris Gayle and Evin Lewis, and Fabien Allen’s double-strike in the 13th over to dismiss Rishabh Pant and Shikhar Dhawan. But they failed to build on the big moments.”From T20s to the last ODI here, we have played some pretty decent cricket in patches, it is just a matter for us to put it together more often than not and that’s where we continue to let ourselves down,” Holder said.”It’s just a matter for us to continue to build, you know. I keep saying it’s a matter for us to really seize the key moments of the game and play those key moments a little bit better than we have been in the past.”Holder said there were a lot of individual performances – positives – that the team could build on going into the Test series and beyond.”The way Chris played today, Evin Lewis too showed a lot of form. The bowlers had a reasonable time too. The last game I thought we bowled really, really well,” he said. “Today we were off a little bit, but generally our bowling has led us in the last couple of games.”Nicholas Pooran continues to show what he can produce here at this level. Every single batter today really put their hands up today. I was really, really pleased how we batted in the situation after the rain break. In the past we lost too many wickets and not being able to – or struggled to – bat, and I think we handled the situation very well today and put ourselves in a really good situation in the halfway stage, you know. Just unfortunate we weren’t able to defend it but when you don’t hold your chances these things happen.”With the Test series beginning on August 22, Holder urged the side to carry the momentum from their 2-1 series win over England earlier this year. An additional incentive for the side will be the points in the World Test Championship.”We’ve got a few days off. This is a fresh group, different faces coming in to the Test squad. It’s a matter for us to continue doing the good work we have been doing in Test cricket in the last two-three years,” he said. “The first series we had this year was a success. I know the guys would be ready to go against India here in this second series of the year.”Obviously with the Test championship around it’s something I look forward to play. I think the guys are up for it. We started really well this year beating England at home and you know we had some brilliant individual performances. It’s just a matter for us to build. The Test championships are two years away, we have a lot of cricket to play in the next two years, I think every series will be important. Each and every moment in the series will be important.”

With the ODIs against Zimbabwe beginning later this month, a lot of key Bangladesh players are carrying injuries

Mohammad Isam04-Oct-2018Mashrafe Mortaza and Mushfiqur Rahim, who had injuries during the Asia Cup, are expected to recover in the next two weeks to add experience to Bangladesh’s squad for the ODIs against Zimbabwe from October 21.With the selectors likely to name a preliminary squad by next week, the injuries to Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal have already left a gaping hole in the batting line-up. Bangladesh are scheduled to start a training camp in Dhaka from October 15.According to BCB’s chief physician Debashish Chowdhury, Mashrafe will need two more weeks to recover fully from his finger injury, which he sustained during the Asia Cup match against Pakistan on September 26.”The injury on his little finger is quite serious,” Chowdhury said. “It takes about three weeks to recover. We are hoping that Mashrafe can come back from that injury within two weeks. He was struck by a ball directly. We will have a further scan tomorrow to ascertain how much of a blood clot there is. Once we know about it, we will go for our next course of action.”Mashrafe is not too bothered about the injury though. He said he has already played two matches with it, and his bowling isn’t affected by the injury. The finger comes to use for his batting, of course.”Chowdhury said Mushfiqur, who injured his rib during the pre-Asia Cup training camp in Dhaka, has been rested for a week. “[Mushfiqur] has a cracked rib which usually takes four to six weeks to heal. Ribs usually take time as it is constantly moving. There’s no rest. We have asked Mushfiqur to rest for a week after which we will determine the next course of action.”If their recoveries don’t go to plan, Bangladesh might find it difficult to replace Mushfiqur in the middle order and Mashrafe as captain.The opening partnership was an issue for Bangladesh in the Asia Cup. Mehidy Hasan, who had a 120-run opening stand with Liton Das in the final, was last-gasp measure after Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Soumya Sarkar failed throughout the tournament.Even if the team management is looking to continue with Mehidy as opener in the Zimbabwe series, they would still want back-up. Despite scoring only 20 runs in three Asia Cup matches, Shanto remains the long-term option. Soumya could, for the fourth time this year, sneak into the squad despite a number of failures, as he has always been preferred either by the team management or by the BCB officials.Imrul Kayes could also be in contention for his experience, though he made only one fifty in three Asia Cup matches. Mominul Haque, Mosaddek Hossain and Ariful Haque will be competing for middle-order slots. Mominul and Mosaddek struggled in the Asia Cup while Ariful, who didn’t get a game, recently struck a maiden double-hundred in the first-class competition’s opening round.Mohammad Mithun made two vital fifties in the Asia Cup and would be crucial in the middle order, along with Mahmudullah. However, Tushar Imran, who scored twin hundreds in the opening first-class match of the season, might have to wait till early November as he may be considered for the Test series against Zimbabwe.Mustafizur Rahman and Rubel Hossain are likely to partner Mashrafe – if he is fit – in the pace attack, while Abu Hider is likely to continue as their understudy. Bangladesh could pick an extra pace bowler as cover for Mashrafe.Left-arm spinner Nazmul Islam could be leading the race to replace Shakib the bowler, though in the recent past the more experienced Abdur Razzak has had more success in domestic cricket. Offspinner Sohag Gazi also made a strong case for selection with a number of notable performances in the last 12 months.Chowdhury said Shakib’s recovery would be determined after a surgeon in Australia assesses him next week. “We have removed fluid twice within the last two-four days from Shakib’s infected finger. He is improving. His infection will come under control in a week through medication. He is likely to go to Australia on Friday, to determine whether he needs surgery,” he said.An update on Tamim’s injury might take about three weeks.

The match provides Malan a chance to find some form ahead of the Test series while Sam Curran also leaves the one-day squad to face India A at New Road

Andrew McGlashan15-Jul-2018James Vince has been called up to England’s one-day squad for the deciding match against India at Headingley with Dawid Malan released to take up his place in the Lions side, to face India A in a four-day match at New Road, ahead of the Test series against India next month.Sam Curran, the Surrey allrounder, has also been let go from the one-day side to face India A which he was originally selected for. He made his debut against Pakistan at Headingley and further opportunity could arise when Ben Stokes is unavailable because of his trial in Bristol which starts the day after the first Test is due to finish.Malan is likely to feature in the middle order although he is under some pressure after two lean Tests against Pakistan where he made 46 runs in three innings. Since that series finished in early June, Malan has only played five matches – all for Middlesex – and his last four innings across various formats have been 0, 0, 2 and 0 including a pair in the pink-ball Championship match against Kent.He had been called into the one-day squad on the day of the first match after Alex Hales injured his side. After the England Lions game he has a Championship fixture against Warwickshire – there is a round of matches shoe-horned in amid the ongoing T20 Blast – before the Test series against India begins on August 1.

England Lions team to face India A

Rory Burns (capt), Alastair Cook, Nick Gubbins, Dawid Malan, Ollie Pope, Chris Woakes, Sam Curran, Dom Bess, Matt Fisher, Jack Leach, Jamie Porter

As was the case with Malan, Vince won’t feature unless there is an injury to one of England’s top order ahead of the match on Tuesday but his call-up is acknowledgment for an impressive Royal London Cup campaign where he made 527 runs and captained Hampshire to the title.Vince, who lost his Test place at the start of the season, played the last of his five ODIs back in 2016 on the tour of Bangladesh when Hales and Eoin Morgan both opted out of the trip due to security concerns.He has been selected ahead of Sam Billings, who has been a regular part of the one-day squad but made precious few appearances. He was left out after the series against Australia and said there had been discussions between him and national selector Ed Smith that it was better to get a run of matches for Kent rather than carry the drinks for England. Billings has since found some form with 75 in the Royal London final and a T20 career-best of 95 not out, both against Vince’s Hampshire.There remains the possibility that there is one batting berth up for grabs in England’s World Cup squad next year with Billings, Vince and Malan perhaps in a three-way tussle.Surrey’s Rory Burns will captain England Lions against India A – a side that will also feature Alastair Cook and Chris Woakes – with a chance to further press his claims for Test selection. He is the leading run-scorer across all Championship cricket with 722 runs at 65.63 and could be the next man in line for a chance at the top of the order if another change is needed.Keaton Jennings was recalled in place of Mark Stoneman for the second Test against Pakistan, so will likely start the series against India, but Burns is breathing down his neck along with Nick Gubbins who is also part of the Lions side.

Sheldon Jackson also completed a century to help them set up a title bout against defending champions Vidarbha

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy at the Chinnaswamy28-Jan-2019Just over ten years ago in Mumbai, Cheteshwar Pujara had scored an unbeaten 112 to steer Saurashtra to a fourth-innings target of 325 against Karnataka in the quarter-finals of the Ranji Trophy. On Monday, he completed a #10SeasonChallenge of sorts, his unbeaten 131 against the same opponents, this time at their backyard, leading Saurashtra home in another tricky fourth-innings chase, sealing a spot in their third Ranji final in seven seasons.Starting day five at 224 for 3, Saurashtra took 17.4 overs to knock off the 55 runs they still needed. Karnataka had too little to defend, with seven wickets still to get, but they made sure they made Saurashtra work for those runs.Sheldon Jackson, who put on 214 with Pujara for the fourth wicket, reached his hundred in the fourth over of the morning with a hooked four off Abhimanyu Mithun. He made a difficult shot look easy, meeting the ball in front of his right shoulder and rolling his wrists over to keep it down. In the very next over, though, Vinay Kumar got one to scoot through low and bowl him.Vinay, Karnataka’s talisman for so many years, and their captain when they won back-to-back domestic trebles in 2013-14 and 2014-15, has endured an ordinary season with the ball, ending with only 14 wickets in seven matches at an average of 33.71. On his last day of the season, however, he was a constant menace through his spell of seven overs, at one point beating Pujara twice in a row, first going past his inside edge and then the outside edge.Ronit More bowled a testing spell at the other end, using the short ball frequently with close catchers on the leg side, and Arpit Vasavada fell to this line of attack, fending one off his ribs to short leg.But, by then only five runs were required, and Pujara, who had calmly weathered all the pressure put on him by Karnataka – which was given an edge by what the home side perceived to be an umpiring error on day four, when they were sure he had nicked Vinay to the keeper – and whittled down the target effortlessly with clips into the leg side and steers down to third man, was still there.He would, however, be at the non-striker’s end when the winning runs came. After ducking three successive bouncers from More, Prerak Mankad got a half-volley next ball, and drove it through mid-off to spark raucous celebrations in the Saurashtra dressing room.