All posts by csb10.top

Yorkshire are closing in on victory over Division Two leaders Sussex at Hove following Ben Coad’s new-ball five-for at Scarborough, setting up a victory target of 103 late on day three.Sussex started the day on 26 without loss in their second innings, 111 runs behind the league’s third-placed side, and were bowled out for 239 as seamer Coad returned five for 69. His wickets came with the first and second new balls.Half-centuries for Tom Alsop and captain John Simpson, who top-scored with 67, meant the visitors were not over-run. But they realistically needed more to defy a Yorkshire attack who kept on coming at them.The hosts then closed the day on 28 for 2 from 10 overs and require 75 more to seal a third win in as many four-day games. Sussex were teetering at lunch against their third-placed rivals, 66 for three in their second innings and still 71 runs in arrears. Only their second defeat of 2024 looked like it might come quickly.However, Alsop with 61 – his second fifty of the match – and Simpson held things up with a fifth-wicket partnership of 85, compiled through the majority of the afternoon.A 45-minute rain delay from 11.10am cut 10 overs from the day’s allocation of 103. Yorkshire still had enough time before lunch to prise out three Sussex wickets.George Hill claimed two of them with his seam after Fin Bean had helped Coad strike with a stunning one-handed leaping catch above his head at third slip to remove the Australian opener Daniel Hughes. That wicket had come in the opening stages of the day, before the rain.Afterwards, Hill had Tom Haines caught by Bean at first slip and Tom Clark caught behind by Jonny Bairstow – his first catch of the match. Both Toms were out playing loosely.By now, Sussex were faced with a pitch showing significant signs of invariable bounce. Clark, for example, faced balls which rapped him on the gloves from Jordan Thompson and shot past his ankle from Hill en route to 17. Thompson himself struck in the early stages of the afternoon when he uprooted James Coles’ leg stump.But that paved the way for the Sussex fightback, with Alsop and Simpson – their two most prolific batters this season – wiping out the remaining 53-run deficit and claiming a lead. Largely, they advanced with caution, though Alsop, who drove nicely, did reverse sweep one of his boundaries off Dan Moriarty’s left-arm spin.By the time tea arrived, Sussex were 164 for 4, 27 ahead and Alsop had reached a 125-ball fifty. Their partnership was closing in on three figures when Alsop was caught behind at the second attempt by Bairstow on the cut.And when Fynn Hudson-Prentice was run out at the striker’s end having been sent back by Simpson, with Jonny Tattersall from backward point and Bairstow combining, Sussex were 179 for six in the 78th over, leading by 42 and with the new ball on the horizon.That new ball worked immediately for Yorkshire, with Coad getting Jack Carson caught behind. At 188 for 7, the earlier good work of Alsop and Simpson was threatening to be undermined. So it proved.As Simpson reached his fifty off 129 balls, Ollie Robinson clubbed a quick 28, only for him to be caught behind off Coad. Bairstow’s fourth catch of the day left Sussex 226 for eight, leading by 89.Coad had Jaydev Unadkat caught at mid-on shortly afterwards before bowling Simpson, who tried to ramp a second six as he was shorn of partners, to wrap things up with his 35th wicket of the campaign. No bowler has taken more in Division Two this season.Unadkat and Robinson then had Bean and Thompson caught in the slips – 18 for 2 – to at least give Sussex a glimmer of hope that they can achieve what would be a remarkable turnaround.

Durham have secured a key signing ahead of their first season as a Tier 1 women’s team in 2025, with the return of Dani Hazell, Northern Diamonds’ highly rated head coach, to Chester-le-Street on a three-year deal.Hazell, who made 141 appearances for England between 2009 and 2018, including two World Cups and three Ashes wins, is also head coach of the Headingley-based Northern Superchargers, a role she will retain alongside her Durham commitments.Having begun her playing career at Durham’s academy, Hazell was an obvious target for the club hierarchy as they set about establishing themselves as the new home of women’s cricket in the north of England, and her transfer may help to persuade other Leeds-based Diamonds’ players to commit to a relocation, rather than wait for Yorkshire to attain their own Tier 1 status in 2026.”It was clear from the off that Dani was the right person to lead Durham into our new chapter and begin to create history as a women’s professional team,” Marcus North, the club’s director of cricket, said. “She knows the club inside-out having played for us and worked within our women and girl’s pathway in recent years.”Dani has an excellent reputation following a successful period as Northern Diamonds and Northern Superchargers head coach, she had a winning mentality as a player and as a coach which is exciting for Durham. I look forward to working with her, as this exciting chapter for Durham Cricket begins.”Hazell, 36, took over as Northern Diamonds’ head coach in 2019, with the club winning the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy in 2022, while Northern Superchargers reached the women’s Hundred final in 2023. She has also played a key role in the development of the Diamonds academy over the course of her tenure.”I’m delighted to take up the opportunity as head coach.” said Hazell. “This is an exciting new chapter for Durham Cricket and the whole of the region, and I wanted to be part of this historic new era for the club.”I feel aligned with the club’s ambitions and standards to continually grow and move forward in such a pivotal moment for women and girls’ cricket.”I knew after initial conversations; it was the right opportunity for me to return to my home club and I am really looking forward to the challenge ahead.”Tim Bostock, Durham’s chief executive, added: “We’re delighted that Dani has agreed to become the head coach of our women’s team and we are extremely excited to welcome her back to Durham. Her knowledge of the game globally is key, but also her knowledge of the game in Durham is vitally important for us, I believe she is the perfect fit for Durham Cricket.”

Lucknow Super Giants’ win over Mumbai Indians in their last game of the season was not enough to take them to the playoffs, but it was the kind of performance their captain KL Rahul wanted more of throughout the season.LSG finished on 14 points and occupied sixth spot on table – level with fourth-placed Chennai Super Kings, who still have a game to play on Saturday – but their net run rate of -0.667 was not enough to push them into the top four.”At the beginning of the season, I really felt that we had a strong team and had most bases covered,” Rahul said after the game. “[We had] a couple of injuries obviously, which happens every season to every team, but those injuries and the guys that went away really dented us a little bit, and we didn’t play well enough collectively.Related

• Hardik banned for MI's slow over rate, will miss first game next season

• Boucher admits off-field noise may have 'clouded' Hardik after MI finish at bottom

• Mohsin Khan nearly lost an arm, but he's back to being Lucknow's enforcer

• Pooran-inspired win fails to take LSG into the playoffs

“When the bowlers had a good game, the batters wouldn’t have a good game. We just didn’t come together as much as we would have wanted to.”Rahul’s comments were echoed by LSG head coach Justin Langer, who said they wanted to try a few new tricks in their last game, and that included opening with Devdutt Padikkal in place of Quinton de Kock. But the Padikkal move did not pay off – he was trapped lbw for a golden duck by Nuwan Thushara – and LSG soon found themselves in a familiar position of losing early wickets.They were 69 for 3 in the tenth over but Nicholas Pooran’s whirlwind 29-ball 75 revivied them. It also helped Rahul accelerate from 29 off 28 to finish on 55 off 41 and took the side to 214.LSG had come into the season with a reputation for defending totals, and they lived up to it the first three times they batted first. However, their bowling took a hit in the second half of the competition, with injuries to key bowlers like Mohsin Khan and Mayank Yadav, and they struggled to defend totals.But in Mumbai, even after the hosts enjoyed an 88-run opening stand in 8.4 overs, their bowling unit came together to effectively blunt the opposition by the 15th over. Naman Dhir, batting at No. 7, gave them a scare with a 28-ball 62 not out, but LSG got through.Langer acknowledged that they missed the services of Mayank and Mohsin, but felt that their sloppy fielding “really killed us in the end”.”I think dropped catches cost us,” Langer said at the post-game press conference. “If you go back to the Delhi game at home, we dropped [Jake] Fraser-McGurk on 17 [24] off Marcus Stoinis. And I think he hit 26 [21] runs off the next over and it really kickstarted his whole season. I saw a stat today that we’ve dropped a lot of catches. We’ve probably got the best fielding coach in the world [Jonty Rhodes] and we dropped some catches. And often it’s [something] as simple as that to [decide] the outcome of the season.”We missed Mayank, he was huge. Mohsin [Khan] had quite a sore back for some of the tournament. But I think dropped catches is the thing that really killed us in the end.”But against MI, LSG held on to all their chances – five catches taken on the field. Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi took a brilliant catch each to send Dewald Brevis and Suryakumar Yadav, respectively, packing.”Today was a really good performance,” Rahul said. “This is the kind of game we wanted to play more where batters are scoring, and bowlers are doing their job. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that, so we find ourselves here.”

Australia A will host New Zealand A in two four-day games, including a day-night pink ball match, and three 50-over matches in Queensland in August and September as Cricket Australia unveiled its full domestic schedule for the 2023-24 summer.Australia A toured New Zealand in April for two four-day games, and a return series has been locked in for August and September in Brisbane and Mackay in Queensland. CA also announced there will be a Prime Minister’s XI four-day game against Pakistan at Manuka Oval in Canberra ahead of Australia’s first Test of the home summer against Pakistan in Perth on December 14. West Indies will also play a CA XI in a four-day tour game starting on January 10 at Karen Rolton Oval in Adelaide before the first Test of a two-Test series against Australia begins at Adelaide Oval on January 17.Related

• MCG and SCG to host standalone WBBL games for the first time

• Early start, early finish for the BBL might see overseas players stay longer

The Sheffield Shield season will run from October 3, 2023, until the final on March 21-25, 2024. There will be six Shield rounds before the first Test but the last of those six games begins on November 28 to accommodate the BBL starting earlier on December 7. That may mean that Australia’s multi-format players are likely to go without a red-ball game before the Pakistan Test series with the 50-over World Cup set to run from October 5 until November 19 in India. Australia are scheduled to then stay in India and play a five-match T20I series straight after the completion of the World Cup, prior to the home Test series against Pakistan.Players, support staff and management celebrate another Western Australia title•Getty Images

The Marsh Cup 50-over competition will remain as an eight-game tournament rather than a full 10-round home and away season with some matches also played at neutral venues. Two-time defending champions Western Australia will begin their tilt for a three-peat against Queensland at Allan Border Field on September 24. The majority of the Marsh Cup will be played prior to the BBL with each state playing their final two matches after the BBL has finished in late January. The Marsh Cup final will be played on February 25.The WNCL final will be played the day before on February 24. The women’s domestic season will begin on September 22 at Cricket New South Wales’ new facility, Cricket Central at Sydney Olympic Park. The venue will host WNCL, WBBL, and Marsh Cup matches this summer as well as its maiden first-class game with NSW to host Queensland in the opening round of the Sheffield Shield season. Adelaide Oval will also host a day-night WNCL match between South Australia and Victoria on January 29 as part of CA’s push to get more domestic women’s matches on the bigger international venues.There will also be a Governor General’s XI match against South Africa’s women’s team on January 24 at North Sydney Oval ahead of the women’s multiformat seven-match series against Australia starting on January 27.

Rishabh Pant has begun going through a series of match-simulation exercises as he continues his recovery from a life-threatening car accident in December 2022 and targets a return to competitive cricket during IPL 2024.On Tuesday, Pant and Hardik Pandya, who is recovering from an ankle injury, played a 20-over practice game at the KSCA facility in Alur, Karnataka, under the supervision of National Cricket Academy physios and trainers. They are expected to have another round of conditioning and match-simulation drills on Thursday and it’s likely this exercise will continue until early March.ESPNcricinfo understands Pant experienced no discomfort while batting for the entire 20 overs and the team monitoring him is believed to be satisfied with his endurance levels. Pant, however, didn’t keep wicket and has reportedly been advised to resume that aspect of his training in March. If he’s ready in time for the IPL, he is like to play as a specialist batter for Delhi Capitals.On Tuesday, Pant had a posted a video on Instagram in which he’s seen doing some wicketkeeping and mobility drills, which have become part of his lower-body conditioning over the past six weeks. The NCA staff is mindful of not overloading Pant and want to ease him back into the rigours of training in a high-intensity environment.Related

• Pant to lead Capitals, play first half as batter in IPL 2024: Capitals co-owner

• Ponting: Pant is 'very confident' of playing entire IPL 2024

• Pant on his life-threatening car crash: 'I felt my time in this world was over'

• Rishabh Pant suffers multiple injuries in serious car crash

Ricky Ponting, Delhi’s head coach, had spoken earlier this month about “managing Pant” through IPL 2024, if he wasn’t ready to play every single game.”We’ll just keep our fingers crossed and hope that he can be out there and play,” Ponting had said. “Even if it’s not all the games, if we can manage him through 10 of the 14 games or whatever that might be, then whatever games you can get out of him will be a bonus.”Rishabh is very confident that he’s going to be right to play. In what capacity we’re not quite sure yet. But I’ll guarantee if I asked him now he’ll say, ‘I’m playing every game, I’m keeping every game and I’m batting at No.4.’ That’s just what he’s like, but we’ll keep our fingers crossed.”Pant hasn’t played competitive cricket since the accident in December 2022, when he was driving from Delhi to his hometown of Roorkee to meet his family. After being treated initially in Dehradun, Pant was airlifted to Mumbai, where he had knee surgery under the care of BCCI’s specialist consultant.Since last April, Pant has mostly been at the NCA in Bengaluru for his rehab under the guidance of physio S Rajnikanth, who has worked with several India age-group teams and also been part of the DC support staff.Rajnikanth had previously helped Hardik, Jasprit Bumrah and M Vijay recover from serious injuries. Thulasi Ram Yuvaraj, another NCA physio, has also been working with Pant on mobility and speed drills.In an interview aired earlier this month on , Pant had spoken about how he insulated himself from the outside world to focus on his recovery. “I am focusing on recovery cut off from the world,” he said. “It helps me in recovering fast, especially when the injury is so serious. For recovery, you have to do the same thing every day. It’s boring, it’s irritating, it’s frustrating, but you have to do it.”Hardik is believed to be recovering well from the ankle injury he picked up midway through the 2023 ODI World Cup. He had begun training in Baroda last month and checked into the NCA for regular fitness monitoring. He is reportedly on track to lead Mumbai Indians at IPL 2024.Last week, BCCI secretary Jay Shah had said Hardik would be Rohit Sharma’s vice-captain for the 2024 T20 World Cup beginning on June 1 in the USA and the West Indies.

Allrounders Wessly Madhevere and Brandon Mavuta have been suspended with immediate effect by Zimbabwe Cricket for “allegedly breaching anti-doping rules”. They have been suspended from all cricket activities, pending a hearing, after they tested positive for a banned recreational drug in an out-of-competition case during a in-house dope test recently.They have been charged under the ZC Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials, and will appear for a disciplinary hearing soon, which will likely decide the length of their suspension.Both Madhevere and Mavuta were part of the Zimbabwe side that faced Ireland in a home series until last week. Madhevere played all three T20Is while Mavuta played just the third T20I and the three ODIs after that.Mavuta made his international debut in 2018, and has so far played four Tests, 12 ODIs and 10 T20Is, while Madhevere, who first represented Zimbabwe in 2020, has featured in two Tests, 36 ODIs and 60 T20Is.While Mavuta didn’t play any competitive cricket after the Ireland series, Madhevere featured for Mashonaland Eagles in the ongoing Logan Cup, Zimbabwe’s first-class competition, to score 4 and bag 2 for 34.Madhevere’s and Mavuta’s suspensions come a day after Zimbabwe’s head coach Dave Houghton resigned from his post, as they failed to qualify for the 2024 T20 World Cup after also missing out on the 2023 ODI World Cup.

Oval Invincibles could be rebranded with the three-feathers crest of Surrey County Cricket Club, according to chairman Oli Slipper, who has told county members that the Hundred needs to be embraced to help shore up the whole of English cricket, including the County Championship.Surrey were notable sceptics when the Hundred was conceived in 2018, in part because of the impact its hosting would have on red-ball cricket at the height of the English summer, and also because its existence would undermine the existing T20 Blast, for which the club had long attracted full houses at the Kia Oval, the largest venue in the country.Now, however, Slipper says the club hierarchy has been won over by the Hundred’s revenue-generating potential and, in an end-of-year letter to the club membership, says Surrey will use their share of any equity from the ECB’s review of the tournament’s ownership model to bring Oval Invincibles under the club banner, and reinforce their claim to be “the greatest club in the world”.”For many long-standing and committed members of this club, the greatest challenge to the red-ball game is the Hundred,” Slipper wrote. “I fully understand and appreciate those concerns, but I want to assure you that, as chair, I will do nothing that will imperil the future of either this club or County Cricket.”The reality is the Hundred has been a huge success both from a ticketing and TV perspective,” he added. “It is also an extremely important revenue stream for the game of cricket, generating roughly 25% of the ECB’s revenue which funds the broader game of cricket, and helps maintain a viable 18 county ecosystem.”Despite the ECB’s ongoing review into the Hundred, in which various options have been tabled – including a rise to ten teams and an “open pyramid” option featuring all 18 counties in a two-division format – Slipper noted that the competition’s broadcast deal with Sky Sports is locked in until 2028 and therefore scrapping it is “not an option”.Instead, he said that the desire of the ECB and its 19 shareholders to “evolve and improve” the Hundred, including by handing ownership of the competition back to the counties and MCC, presented a “unique opportunity” for Surrey to exert a greater influence on the direction of the sport in England and Wales.Related

• Sam Billings: Hundred equity carve-up must be fair deal for all counties

• Mark Chapman, Manchester Originals chair: 'The ECB aren't talking to Hundred boards'

• Lancashire chairman resists notion of county rebrand for Hundred teams

• ECB seek decision on private investment in Hundred by spring 2024

• Lancashire chairman: The Hundred becoming a T20 tournament 'makes sense'

“Whilst other counties will undoubtedly opt to sell equity in their team, under my stewardship Surrey will take a longer-term view and look to own and operate our own team within this tournament,” Slipper wrote. “We must find a way of ensuring the history, heritage and legacy of this club is represented in each month of the English summer.”We are not just a venue rented out to the highest bidder, we are the greatest club in the world. We are the pacesetters in English cricket and if any club expects to play domestic cricket at The Kia Oval, they should also expect to wear the Three Feathers of Surrey.”Therefore, it is my ambition, that we get to a point where anyone who plays domestic cricket at this ground does so in the knowledge that they are standing on the shoulders of giants such as Edrich, Hobbs, Stewart and Hollioake.”That ambition also extends to the women’s game, with Slipper signalling the club’s intention to take full ownership of the regional side, South East Stars, so that the “Three Feathers are represented at all levels of women’s domestic cricket”. The club is also exploring options to build a second venue outside of Kennington, to help address the growing pitch-capacity issues at the Kia Oval.Surrey’s men claimed a record-extending 22nd County Championship this summer, successfully defending the title they won in 2022, and Slipper promised to use their growing influence within the ECB to protect the sanctity of first-class cricket, which he described as “the pinnacle of our game and the prize we cherish more than any other”.”I believe that it is our seat at the table that will allow us to wield the power and influence necessary to not only further the interests of Surrey County Cricket Club, but also protect and even grow the red-ball game in this country,” he wrote. “The Counties will need strong voices in the coming years, not just from the sidelines but from within the game at all levels, and I intend ours to be a leading voice.”

—Fixtures | Squads | Points table | Tournament Index

Top Story: Jadeja razes South Africa for 83 after Kohli scores 49th ODI ton

Virat Kohli gifted himself a record-equalling 49th ODI century and India their eighth successive victory in this World Cup, on his 35th birthday. When Kohli drew level with Sachin Tendulkar, with a punched single in the penultimate over of India’s innings, a crowd of 60,000 at Eden Gardens celebrated with Kohli and made it a memorable birthday bash.Kohli, who walked out to bat in the sixth over after Rohit Sharma had won the toss and challenged India to bat, batted till the end of the innings, lifting India to an above-par 326 for 5. He ended up outscoring South Africa who could manage just 83 in 27.1 overs. Ravindra Jadeja bagged career-best figures of 5 for 33 to wreck South Africa’s chase and consign them to their joint second-lowest total in ODI cricket.Click here for the full report

Match analysis: Kohli soaks up the spotlight so that India can celebrate and shine

Virat Kohli’s terrific hundred took India to above-par 326•ICC via Getty

The path Virat Kohli chose in Pune was a dangerous one. He possibly didn’t even choose that path but was led down it by KL Rahul. Not the path where he tried to hit sixes to get his 48th hundred even as India were running out of runs to chase. But the one where they started manipulating strike to get him there.India had plenty of overs and wickets in hand, so there was no risk of losing. Let’s also put aside the possible disrespect to the opposition – telling them you are beating them with plenty of time to spare – because there are arguments against that too. It was the attention he was drawing to himself. Telling the whole country, which hangs on to his every word and gesture – that he is so keen to get to No. 50 that he is willing to do something he has never done.Read the full analysis from Sidharth Monga

Must Watch: What does India’s dominance mean for the rest?

1:58

What does India’s dominant win mean for the rest?

News headlines

• Delhi’s poor air quality could force the ICC to cancel the clash between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka with protocols being put in place to monitor the situation right up until game time with points to be shared if no play is possible.
• Moeen Ali says England’s older players perhaps did not see the writing on the wall ahead of the World Cup after losing six of seven matches to be knocked out of the tournament.
• Cameron Green says he has no issues with being left out of Australia’s first-choice XI against Afghanistan as Mitchell Marsh and Glenn Maxwell are likely to return after missing the England game.

Match preview

Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka, Delhi (2pm IST; 8.30am GMT; 7.30pm AEDT)3:48

Finch wants to see Shakib at No. 3

This may not be the must-win scenario either side would have envisioned towards the tail-end of this tournament, but the ICC’s confirmation that the top seven finishers (and hosts Pakistan) will gain qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy has given what would have been a largely inconsequential game some much needed purpose.Both sides’ troubles are well documented. Since their opening game win against Afghanistan, Bangladesh have lost six on the trot. Only England have a worse record, and Bangladesh have lost to them too. For a side that had won 24 of 39 ODIs since the start of 2021, this has been the most underwhelming of tournaments, especially in conditions that on the face of it looked like it might have suited them.Full previewTeam newsBangladesh (probable): 1 Litton Das, 2 Tanzid Hasan, 3 Najmul Hossain Shanto, 4 Mushfiqur Rahim (wk) 5 Mahmudullah, 6 Shakib Al Hasan (capt), 7 Mehidy Hasan Miraz, 8 Towhid Hridoy , 9 Taskin Ahmed, 10 Mustafizur Rahman, 11 Shoriful Islam.Sri Lanka (probable): 1 Pathum Nissanka, 2 Kusal Perera/Dimuth Karunaratne, 3 Kusal Mendis (capt, wk) 4 Sadeera Samarawickrama, 5 Charith Asalanka, 6 Angelo Mathews 7 Dushan Hemantha 8 Maheesh Theekshana, 9 Kasun Rajitha, 10 Dushmantha Chameera 11 Dilshan Madushanka

Scenarios: What do New Zealand and Pakistan need to do to qualify for the semi-finals?

Daryl Mitchell, Kane Williamson, and Tim Southee talk to an official at the second rain break•ICC/Getty Images

England have been eliminated, South Africa have qualified for the semi-finals, while the fight for the last two semi-finals slots is largely between Australia, New Zealand, Pakistan and Afghanistan. Here is how the qualifications scenarios look for those teams.Read the full analysis from S Rajesh

Ben Stokes will have surgery on his left knee after the World Cup as he hopes to “get back to doing what I’ve been known for” ahead of England’s Test series in India early next year.Stokes has been hampered significantly by his chronic knee problem throughout the last 18 months. He has been playing as a specialist batter at the World Cup and has not bowled a ball in a competitive match in any format since July 1, the fourth day of the second Ashes Test at Lord’s.”I will hopefully be fine for the Test series [against India],” Stokes said on the eve of England’s fixture against Australia in Ahmedabad. “I am having surgery after the World Cup… There was a lot of time put into deciding when to get it done. The India Test series, which we start at the end of January, I should be fine to go by then.”Related

• Shami to Stokes: Ten balls from hell

• Root backs England 'every day over the Australians'

• Morgan says England head coach aspirations 'far-fetched'

• Wood targets 2025-26 Ashes after securing three-year ECB deal

• Willey to retire from international cricket after World Cup

Stokes did not reveal details of the procedure but expected to be out of action for between five and seven weeks and will not feature in England’s white-ball tour to the Caribbean in December. Dr Andy Williams, a leading knee surgeon in London, will perform the surgery.”When we go to those meetings, we generally take a physio and doctor and they start talking. I just turn up, go to sleep, wake up and hope it is better… they use language that I’ve never heard before,” Stokes said. “There’s obviously something that needs to be operated on.”It’s been a big hindrance on me, and affected what I can do for the team. Obviously that [being an allrounder] is what I want to be doing. You’d hope that it means that I can get back to doing what I’ve been known for, which is playing a role as a batter, and playing a role as a bowler as well.”England’s five-Test series in India starts on January 25 in Hyderabad. They will travel to the UAE around two weeks earlier for a short camp before leaving for India two or three days before the start of the series, and Stokes said that his bowling fitness will depend on “more decisions and more discussions from myself and the medical team”.He said, “Obviously it’s been a long time coming and obviously I want to get back to what I’ve been doing prior to the 18 months where I’ve had this injury. We’ll just see how everything goes, see how I respond to the surgery and all the rehab as well… I don’t think the surgery is going to have any hindrance on me taking part in the series in India.”Stokes was non-committal when asked if he plans to take part in next year’s T20 World Cup, or the IPL which immediately precedes it. “Look, we’ve got three games left here in the World Cup and then a huge series against India,” he said. “That’s where everything is at, at the moment.”He also revealed that he has been suffering from “exercise-induced asthma” during the World Cup. He was pictured using an inhaler during a training session before England’s defeat to Sri Lanka in Bengaluru, after doing shuttle runs on the outfield, and suggested it was due to a change in air quality after spending a week in Mumbai.”Sometimes it happens when you go to a new city in India where the air is slightly different,” he said. “That could be a reason for it: Bangalore, when we actually turned up, just felt a lot fresher. Doing the running that I was doing [shuttle runs on the outfield] does bring it on a lot easier than normal.”Despite his impending surgery, Stokes is not planning to leave the World Cup early, and was forthright in his analysis of England’s title defence in India. “We’ve had a disastrous World Cup,” he said. “There’s no point sugarcoating that, because it’s the truth.”Asked to identify the main problem, he said, “The problem is that we’ve been cr*p.Ben Stokes has scored 48 runs in three innings at the World Cup so far•Associated Press

“Everything we’ve tried throughout this World Cup, through trying to put pressure back on to the opposition in the way in which we know, or trying to soak up the pressure in a different way, which we know we’ve done before and been successful with, it’s just not worked.”Every opportunity that we’ve had in front of us where we feel like we can take control of the game, the opposition’s managed to get it back towards them. We’ve just not been able to put a full game together, or even get close to putting a full game together – except against Bangladesh.”Stokes missed the start of the World Cup with a hip injury suffered shortly after England arrived in Guwahati, and has only managed 48 runs in three innings since returning to the side. He insisted that he has no regrets about reversing his ODI retirement, but reiterated that England’s tournament had been “a disaster”.”If you dive too much into it around cricket, you find you come out with more questions than answers… we’ve been nowhere near good enough to be able to compete in a World Cup, which has been incredibly disappointing because we know we’re so, so much better than what we’ve shown out here,” he said. “If we knew what had gone wrong, we would have been able to fix it. But unfortunately, we don’t.”It’s just been one of those tournaments where… yeah, it’s just been a disaster. And there’s no point sugarcoating it, because it’s probably what you’re all going to write anyway – and it’s true.”

If anything is to help this game reverse up Stalemate Close, it is probably the black saucers of earth that lie at each end of the pitch. Batters regard them with suspicion while spin bowlers, of which Lancashire have two specialists, view them with delight. If only our top order can build a lead, they thought this morning, we could frolic in the footmarks on Friday. So as expected, when play began at Emirates Old Trafford on this third day, three hours late and with 29 overs snipped from our ration, Lancashire put the hammer down on an attack lacking Ben Sanderson, Tom Taylor and Rob Keogh.Carnage followed. Big style. And Phil Salt played one of the innings of the season, scoring a century which outshone even those of Luke Wells and Josh Bohannon and reminding everyone, perhaps including Salt himself, that his talents need not be confined to white-ball cricketThat said, Northamptonshire’s injured bowlers have taken 39 of their side’s 108 Championship wickets in 2023 and this day’s two sessions showed how sorely they are missed. To a degree, it also revived memories of the evening’s cricket at Blackpool just over a fortnight ago, when Lancashire’s attack was shredded by Dan Lawrence and Doug Bracewell. This time, however, it was Keaton Jennings’ batters who did the shredding, scoring 377 runs in 67 overs and ending the day with a lead of 156 runs and power to add on the morrow.Even in the present era, such fast-forward cricket lent the evening unreality. The achievement of bonus points every 50 runs, significant partnerships and the batter’s individual landmarks blurred into each other and passed with notebook-defeating speed. Rounds of applause blended into each other, for there always seemed something for home supporters to clap. Wells reached his first century of the season off 171 balls, Bohannon his second off 143 balls and Salt also made his second three-figure score of the campaign, reaching that landmark off 74 balls with his third straight six to add to his 11 fours. So yes, there were plenty of big shots but what was most noticeable, particularly during Bohannon’s 126-run stand for the third wicket in 19 overs with Salt, was the whippet-speed of the running between the wickets as ones became twos if the fielder had to make any ground towards the ball.And as so often on such occasions, catches went down, some more culpably than others. White had little choice but to throw his catch at deep square leg back inside the boundary as he toppled over the rope, thus giving Wells a life on 78, but shortly afterwards Lewis McManus had no such excuse when he spilled a very straightforward chance off Dominic Leech. McManus was standing back, Leech was standing aghast and Wells was still standing on 85 not out.The one Northamptonshire fielder to emerge from the massacre with any credit was Ricardo Vasconcelos, who took an unremarkable catch to dismiss Wells off White for 119 and then a very remarkable, one-handed, diving effort off the same bowler to remove Bohannon for 128. But the loss of those wickets was acceptable collateral damage for Lancashire, although the same could hardly be said when Croft received a box-splintering blow in the knackers from White and fell to earth like a lightweight on the end of a haymaker.Salt’s dismissal, caught at deep square leg off White for a 77-ball 105 brought the curtain down on chaos. Nine overs from the close, Bell was caught on the deep square leg boundary by Vasconcelos for 15 and Croft and Tom Bailey later fell to Luke Procter, who, along with White, was the only Northamptonshire bowler who will wish to consult his bowling figures this evening. But those late successes seemed taken from another game, one far detached from the mayhem of a post-tea session in which 222 runs were scored in 35 overs, and one even further removed from the sight of Salt hitting fours and sixes that astounded even his batting partner.