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Neil McKenzie used all his experience gleaned over a long career in international cricket with South Africa to guide Hampshire to a two-wicket win

Cricinfo staff18-Aug-2010
ScorecardNeil McKenzie continued his fine form as Hampshire secured victory•Getty Images

Neil McKenzie used all his experience gleaned over a long career in international cricket with South Africa to guide Hampshire to a two-wicket win over Leicestershire in their Clydesdale Bank 40 at the Rose Bowl. As wickets tumbled around him, McKenzie held firm with an unbeaten 51 to help his side get home with 13 balls to spare in a rain-affected match.Leicestershire, choosing to bat first, made 176 for 8 from their allotment of 35 overs, rain having knocked five from their total available. With McKenzie in control, Hampshire reached their target in 32.5 overs, keeping alive their hopes of qualifying for the latter stages of the CB40 competition.Leicestershire struggled to get going with Hampshire captain Dominic Cork taking two wickets before rain came and on the resumption Jacques du Toit and Matt Boyce contrived the best partnership of the innings, 71, for the fourth wicket. Du Toit was caught at mid-wicket for a valiant 45 and Boyce made 37 before he became a victim for Benny Howell, a 21-year-old allrounder making his Hampshire debut.Hampshire’s young side contained eight players who had come through their academy system and one of those, left arm pace bowler Chris Wood, ripped through the middle order, dismissing Wayne White, Tom New and Jigar Naik in rapid succession to finish with figures of three for 39.Leicestershire’s total never looked likely to be enough although Nathan Buck got rid of Jimmy Adams and Howell to leave Hampshire 45 for 3 in the 12th over. But then came two substantial partnerships involving the durable McKenzie, 52 for the fourth wicket with Michael Carberry and 55 for the fifth with Liam Dawson.Nadeem Malik kept alive Leicestershire’s outside hopes of snatching an unlikely win when he had Dawson caught at square leg for 30 and then dismissed Wood next ball to leave Hampshire 153 for 6 at the end of the 29th over.Malik knocked back the off stump of Michael Bates when the scores were level but McKenzie kept calm to see Hampshire complete their fifth win. McKenzie’s unbeaten innings came off 62 balls and including five fours while the persevering Malik took 4 for 40, the best bowling of the match but it was not enough to earn his team victory.Buck also caused Hampshire plenty of problems with a sharp opening spell and concluded with 2 for 16 from seven overs but in the end Leicestershire did not have enough runs to play with.

New policy will not apply at grassroots or in new Tier 3 county competition

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Oct-2024Transgender women who have gone through male puberty will be excluded from Tiers 1 and 2 of the ECB’s new women’s county competition, as well as the women’s Hundred, after the ECB chose to bring its eligibility policy into line with that adopted by the ICC in 2023.In a statement, the ECB acknowledged that the transgender issue was a “complex area” in which it was “impossible to balance all the considerations”, but cited concerns about player safety at the sport’s elite level in explaining its new position.The clarification comes ahead of the relaunch of women’s domestic cricket in 2025, and brings the English game into line with other elite sports in the UK, including swimming, cycling, athletics, rugby league and rugby union.The policy will not, however, be extended to the grassroots game, nor to Tier 3 of the county competition, which at this stage will comprise teams from the ECB’s national (formerly minor) counties, but which will be subject to promotion and relegation from higher tiers from 2029 onwards.”Considerable time has been taken to reach this policy position,” the board said in its statement. “The ECB recognises that transgender participation is a complex area, with many strongly held views, and it is impossible to balance all the considerations.”We want everyone to feel included and welcome in our sport, and believe the position reached strikes an appropriate balance by ensuring fairness in the elite game while ensuring inclusivity at a recreational level, with specific safeguards in place to manage disparities and ensure safety.”Related

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The ECB’s previous policy had permitted any player who identified as female to compete in professional club and England pathway teams, so long as they had written clearance.In November 2023, the ICC tightened its eligibility policy at the culmination of a nine-month consultation with its stakeholders, and stated that it had based its findings (in order of priority), on “protection of the integrity of the women’s game, safety, fairness and inclusion”.The most prominent player to have been affected by the rule-change was Canada’s Danielle McGahey, who featured in the ICC Women’s T20 Americas Qualifier in September 2023, but acknowledged soon afterwards that her career was over.The ECB added: “Having considered wide-ranging views gathered during the consultation, as well as in consultations conducted during 2023, and the relevant science and medical evidence, the ECB has decided that from 2025 it will adopt the same approach as the ICC for women’s professional domestic cricket. This provides consistency, given that a primary purpose of the top end of the domestic structure is to produce international players.”The detailed policy will now be developed over the coming months, in consultation with stakeholders, and is due to be formally in place in time for the 2025 domestic season. It will apply to Tiers 1 and 2 of the new women’s domestic structure from 2025, as well as the Hundred women’s competition.”

Brothers Jack and Matt fight in eighth-wicket stand but Gloucestershire succumb in final hour

ECB Reporters Network29-Jul-2023Worcestershire’s seamers demonstrated admirable resolve to forge a dramatic late victory over Gloucestershire on the final day of an enthralling LV=County Championship match at the Cheltenham Festival.Adam Finch claimed 4 for 83, Dillon Pennington 4 for 63 and Joe Leach 2 for 57 as the visitors bowled out their neighbours for 311 to win by 110 runs with just 8.5 overs remaining.Worcestershire had earlier declared their second innings on 316 for 8, setting Gloucestershire a notional 421 to win in 96 overs. They looked on course to achieve a routine victory when reducing the home side to 190 for 7 shortly before tea, only for brothers Jack and Matt Taylor to stage a defiant stand of 95 in 27 overs.It took a late burst from Pennington with the second new ball to finally end Gloucestershire resistance, the Shrewsbury-born seamer removing Jack Taylor for a season’s-best 98 and Zaman Akhter in the space of three balls. He then bowled Paul van Meekeren for seven to seal victory, leaving Matt Taylor stranded on 49 not out.Achieving back-to-back victories for the first time since 2019, Worcestershire’s fourth win of this season saw them bank 23 points, while Gloucestershire picked up five. Worcestershire have moved above promotion rivals Glamorgan into second place in the table behind runaway leaders Durham, and they boast a handy 14-point advantage over the Welsh county and are 21 clear of fourth-placed Sussex, who have a game in hand.For their part, Gloucestershire are still seeking their first win of the season after 11 matches and only Yorkshire, docked 48 points by an ECB Cricket Discipline Commission panel earlier this week, sit below them in the table.Required to score at 4.39 runs an over if they were to break their long winless run, Gloucestershire never seriously considered the prospect of victory after losing three wickets during the morning session.Eager to make amends following his first-innings failure, Chris Dent played fluently in accruing five boundaries and moving smoothly to 24, only to then push tentatively at a delivery from Leach and offering Jake Libby a straightforward catch at third slip with the score on 37.Joe Phillips and Ollie Price had staged a superb stand of 100 on day two, but were unable to repeat their first-innings heroics on this occasion, both falling in quick succession to Adam Finch. Attempting to work a ball just short of a length to leg, Phillips top-edged a catch to Brett D’Oliveira at point and departed for 26 in the 16th over.Having posted scores of 85 and 115 in his last two Festival innings, Ollie Price blotted his copybook, taking on Finch and directing a top-edged hook straight to Leach at deep fine leg. He had made just 13 and Gloucestershire were 76 for 3 and in need of a reassuring partnership.Hammond and James Bracey did their best to keep Worcestershire’s seamers at bay in a stubborn alliance of 53 in 19 overs either side of the lunch interval. Although looking out of touch and vulnerable throughout, Bracey battled hard in scratching 19 from 64 balls, before pushing at a ball from Leach and falling to a fine diving catch by Gareth Roderick behind the stumps.Wickets have fallen in clusters throughout this fluctuating contest and, sure enough, the returning Dillon Pennington had Tom Price caught at the wicket without scoring in the next over, further reducing the home side to 130 for 5.Gloucestershire’s most effective batsman in red-ball cricket this season, Hammond continued to serve up resistance, going to his eighth 50 of the summer from 72 deliveries. It is perhaps revealing that he has yet to convert a single one of those half centuries into a hundred, and this innings proved no exception to that rule, the Cheltenham-born left-hander attempting to pull Finch and playing on, undone by a ball that kept low.He had contributed 64, faced 106 balls and struck half a dozen fours and a six, and with him went Gloucestershire’s best chance of saving the game. Fired up and in the zone, the aggressive Finch generated additional pace to bowl Zafar Gohar for five in his next over from the College Lawn End.With 40 overs still to negotiate, Gloucestershire were 190 for 7 and reliant upon their last recognised batsman, Jack Taylor, who at least reached the sanctuary of the tea interval unbeaten on 40 in partnership with younger brother Matt.Attack proved the best form of defence for the elder Taylor, who drove Leach down the ground for his ninth four to raise his first Championship 50 of the season from just 54 balls.He was just two runs short of his hundred when controversy flared. Taylor blocked a ball from Pennington, who then attempted to shy at the stumps only to hit the batsman. Umpire Martin Saggers intervened as tempers flared, awarding five penalty runs to Gloucestershire and issuing Pennington with a verbal warning.Pennington had the last laugh however, Jack Taylor dragging the next delivery onto his stumps and departing for 98. Akhter fell two balls later, edging Pennington low to first slip, leaving Gloucestershire on the brink.

Solitary change to XI as Stokes returns to training after illness

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jun-2022
Jamie Overton will make his Test debut against New Zealand at Headingley on Thursday, in place of James Anderson, as England’s captain Ben Stokes confirmed a solitary change to the team that sealed the series with their five-wicket victory at Trent Bridge last week.Stokes, who had himself been a concern after missing training through illness on Tuesday, came through a training session on Wednesday morning after linking up with the squad, and will lead out the side in search of a 3-0 series win after a brace of uplifting performances at Lord’s and Trent Bridge.Anderson, who claimed 11 wickets at 18.63 in the first two Tests to reaffirm his status as England’s attack leader, will sit the match out with an ankle niggle – partly with a view to next week’s delayed fifth Test against India at Edgbaston, which gets underway three days after the conclusion of the Headingley match, and which England need to win to secure a share of the series that was postponed last year due to Covid scare.Related

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“Unfortunately Jimmy’s not pulled up as much as we’d like to so Jamie Overton is going to make his debut this week,” Stokes confirmed during his pre-match press conference.That solitary change means that England will not, after all, field twins in the same Test for the first time in their history, with Jamie’s brother Craig remaining an unused member of the squad.Under the previous regime, Stuart Broad might have been considered for a rest after back-to-back fixtures, but in keeping with England’s new policy of picking their best available XI for each game, he will continue as the seam attack’s senior presence.Jamie Overton’s debut comes four-and-a-half years after his brother Craig made his first England Test appearance, and comes as reward for a fine start to the season with Surrey, for whom he has claimed 21 wickets at 21, and consistently bowled in excess of 90mph/145kph.England 1 Alex Lees, 2 Zak Crawley, 3 Ollie Pope, 4 Joe Root, 5 Jonny Bairstow, 6 Ben Stokes (capt), 7 Ben Foakes (wk), 8 Jamie Overton, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Matt Potts, 11 Jack Leach.

The two best teams in the competition have very few weaknesses and both sides may need to be bold in trying to exploit any weak link

Alex Malcolm29-Jan-2021Sydney Sixers and Perth Scorchers are unequivocally the two best BBL teams and Saturday night’s Qualifier looms as a mouth-watering clash.It also has huge ramifications in the title race. The teams split their two meetings this season based on where they were played. The Scorchers thumped the Sixers in Perth, but the Sixers provided an emphatic response in their second meeting at Manuka Oval. The Qualifier will be played at Manuka Oval but the winner will gain direct entry to the BBL final and will also get to host it. The reward for winning is massive.After a 14-game regular season, there is plenty of evidence as to how the two teams are likely to line up, but these are three key areas that could decide the contest with views from the BBL’s player acquisition and cricket consultant Trent Woodhill.New-ball Powerplays vitalThe game could well be decided in the two Powerplays. Jhye Richardson and Jason Behrendorff have been arguably the best new-ball pairing in the competition with Richardson claiming the most wickets in this year’s BBL. Jackson Bird has 19 Powerplay wickets in BBL history – just one behind leader Josh Lalor – and Steve O’Keefe has been straggling teams and Ben Dwarshuis was Player of the Match in the win over the Melbourne Stars thanks to his Powerplay exploits.Both sides have explosive Powerplay batting with Josh Philippe and James Vince looming large for the Sixers while Jason Roy, Liam Livingstone, and Colin Munro have been setting games up for the Scorchers.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“I think it’s whoever bowls the best, not so much in the Surge, I reckon it’s actually the Powerplay,” Woodhill said.”If Richardson has a day out and gets through Philippe and Vince then it brings Hughes and Henriques in early. But the same can be said about Ben Dwarshuis, if he deals with the threat of that top four from Perth.”Behrendorff may be the big threat for Philippe. Left-arm pace is his significant weakness, averaging just 19.66 against it and striking at 104.42. Behrendorff knocked him over for 5 in Perth. Three of Philippe’s five dismissals for single-figure scores in this BBL have been against left-arm seamers with Sam Rainbird dismissing him in the last game against the Stars in the first over while James Faulkner trapped Philippe lbw for 1 in the first game of the season.Related

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Targeting the weak linksBoth sides have extraordinary depth but both teams have areas that can be exploited. The Sixers have proven as a batting unit they can win games after batting collapses. But against the Scorchers they may not get the same breathing room to rebuild as they have against other bowling attacks and may need to target a bowler.”Where they’re [both] good, there’s no weakness,” Woodhill said. “You look as a batting unit, who are you going to target, who is the fifth bowler. For Sydney, they will target Aaron Hardie, and depending on the surface, they might have to target Fawad Ahmed as well. AJ Tye, Behrendorff, and Richardson are tough.”Hardie and Tye were collared by the Sixers in the win at Manuka and Hardie was also targeted by the Melbourne Stars at the MCG. That’s forced Scorchers captain Ashton Turner to get creative without the ability to turn to Mitchell Marsh as a sixth bowl. Livingstone has bowled overs in three of the last four games for the Scorchers and could be called upon again. Turner may be reluctant to use himself with only one left-hander to bowl at.Jordan Silk’s form has been a crucial part of the Sixers’ ability to fight back•Getty Images

“Does the Perth team target Jackson Bird?” Woodhill said. “Or do they target another spinner?”The Scorchers did all three in the match in Canberra with Livingstone, Roy, and Munro clubbing nine fours and five sixes off Bird, O’Keefe, and Lloyd Pope but ran aground in the second half of the innings as the surface slowed up and Carlos Brathwaite, Dan Christian, and Jake Ball tied them down with slower balls.Will the X-Factor be used at all?</bThe Scorchers have hardly used the X-Factor all year trusting their first-choice XI to do the job for most of the year. They have only used 15 players in total and subbed Kurtis Patterson for his only game when Marsh injured his side.The Sixers may use their sub as they wrestle with the balance of their attack. The return of Dwarshuis and Sean Abbott saw them use Jake Ball as the sub in the last game against the Stars. They have also played Pope in both matches against the Scorchers with them having five right-handers in the top six and all of those, bar Josh Inglis, having a perceived weakness against legspin."The Sixers might bowl Jackson Bird upfront and then bring Pope in," Woodhill said. "Jackson's job is to bowl over No.1, hit the top of off. He's got more powerplay wickets than anyone in the competition. He might look to come in and take a wicket and then pull him if he's not successful."Do they stick with Jake Ball at the death or do they make him an X-Factor and play both Pope and Bird? That's the challenge. It's a cracker. I'm really excited. I can't split those two teams."