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Sabbir Rahman and Shahriar Nafees batted out of their skin to take Barisal Bulls to the BPL final, where they will face Comilla Victorians

The Report by Mohammad Isam13-Dec-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsLendl Simmons’ 73 was in vain•BCB

Sabbir Rahman and Shahriar Nafees batted out of their skins to take Barisal Bulls to the BPL final, where they will face Comilla Victorians. The five-wicket win over Rangpur Riders came with three balls to spare, and it was sweeter as they won without the big-hitting Chris Gayle.The match was going smoothly in Barisal’s favour when Sabbir and Nafees were adding their 124-run, third-wicket stand, but it started to swing and turn in the last three overs. Sabbir was dropped on 77 in the 18th over by Darren Sammy at long-on off Thisara Perera’s bowling. Two balls later, however, when the batsman tried to hoick over midwicket again, Sammy managed to balance himself on his left foot for about three seconds, nearly leaning into the rope but hanging on brilliantly.One more run came from that over, leaving Barisal to score 19 from the last two overs. The first three balls of the 19th over went for five runs before Mahmudullah skied Sammy’s slower ball straight to long-off where Perera took an easy catch. Rayad Emrit calmly slog-swept the next ball, also a slower one, for a six over deep midwicket before he was beaten off the last ball.Barisal needed eight off the last over when Shakib handed the ball to Perera. He gifted a full-toss down the leg side first ball and Cooper’s thin touch beat the diving wicketkeeper for four. Cooper squeezed one almost to the boundary next ball, but had to settle for two before he hammered a four off another full-toss to seal the win. The players and officials poured out of the Barisal dressing-room, rejoicing a tough climb to the final.Barisal’s start to the chase had been disastrous as they slipped to 10 for 2 in the third over. From such a tough position, with a place in the final on the line, Sabbir and Nafees put together the sixth hundred-plus stand in this year’s competition. The third-wicket partnership started with a charge off Shakib, who gave away three fours in the fifth over. Mohammad Nabi was struck for a four and six through the leg side, before Nafees’ thick outside edge took the ball past the wicketkeeper off Sammy.Sabbir brought out the sweep in the eighth over, going for a fast four, before Nafees swung a boundary away off Abu Jayed in the tenth over. The pair picked up two fours off both Perera and Sammy in the next two overs.Sabbir brought up his first half-century of this season’s BPL in the 14th over, before sweeping past the deep midwicket and backward square leg fielders, again off Nabi. He didn’t get to the pitch of a Saqlain Sajib delivery but the ball sailed over long-off, taking the partnership past the 100-run mark. With Barisal needing 43 off the remaining 30 balls, Nafees blasted Arafat Sunny through midwicket before Sabbir struck his third six, over midwicket. Nafees was run out in the next over, which was also Shakib’s last, for 44 off 40 balls with six fours.When Rangpur chose to bat, there were expectations from Lendl Simmons, who had only scored a single fifty in the tournament. He struck the first boundary for the side in the third over, tucking Mohammad Sami past short fine leg. His new opening partner, Abdullah Al Mamun, making his BPL debut, lofted Al-Amin Hossain over midwicket for a six, before Simmons, too, got his first six with a pull off Taijul Islam over midwicket.The left-arm spinner was struck for two more fours in the same over before Seekkuge Prasanna clean-bowled Mamun for 20; the opening pair had added 52 in 8.3 overs. Soumya Sarkar continued his lean run, falling for only 6, though Sami took a good catch at long-off in the 11th over.Simmons and Shakib added a quickfire 44 for the third wicket, though it was the Rangpur opener who took Al-Amin for a six over long-off, and hit fours down the leg side and past point off Emrit and Prasanna. Simmons was bowled by Sami for 73 off 57 balls, with nine fours and two sixes. He had laid enough of a platform for Rangpur’s allrounders to go for broke in the last few overs.Rangpur lost four wickets in the helter-skelter last over – two of them run-outs, while Cooper took the other two to complete his second four-for in the competition. Rangpur’s good score of 160, however, was eclipsed by a valiant Barisal effort.

County cricket could be played overseas as the ECB seek to ease fixture congestion during the English season.

George Dobell03-Jun-2013County cricket could be played overseas as the ECB seek a radical solution to ease fixture congestion during the English season.ESPNcricinfo understands that, among a raft of proposals under consideration, the ECB has floated the idea of playing the first two rounds of the County Championship overseas, possibly as early as March, in a move that is designed to ease fixture congestion and avoid some of the early-season issues with the weather. This season started on painfully slow pitches and in uncomfortably cold conditions that did little for players or spectators.The Caribbean is one potential venue. Six teams travelled to Barbados this March for pre-season training and warm-up games and it is understood that several Caribbean nations would be delighted to host the counties and their travelling supporters. The UAE, where the MCC Champion County match has taken place for the last four seasons, and South Africa are other potential destinations.While the initial signs are that several counties are supportive of the idea, others are concerned about open rebellion from their members. It is probable that the value of a county membership would be reduced if counties offered fewer matches as part of the package. While subsidised travel to the overseas games may placate a few, for many it may prove too expensive. Whether the idea of better scheduling in more comfortable weather for the rest of the domestic season is adequate mitigation remains to be seen.

Reaction

• “Is it April 1? I would be very concerned about who was going to pay for it all.”

• “The club have invested heavily in the facilities at Headingley and we’re well supported in Yorkshire, so to take matches elsewhere would deny the Yorkshire public.”

• “I did the Champion County match in Abu Dhabi and they were great conditions that allowed for good cricket.”

• “There could be fan mutiny. The British weather sees to it that cricket is already limited.”

Cost is an issue for the counties, too. But it is understood that the trips could be subsidised by sponsorship and possibly even host tourist boards.Apart from allowing more time for rest, recovery and practice, the longer county season might also bring other benefits. It might, for example, also allow counties to participate in the Champions League – no counties are appearing in the 2013 competition as it clashes with the end of the county season – and it might create room for a second T20 competition, played in a small window in mid-season.The ECB are keen to encourage radical debate on the future of the county game as they seek to improve the standard of cricketers emerging through the system and help the counties gain more financial independence. While many of the proposals are not likely to progress beyond conversation stage, this one – while in an embryonic phase at present – appears viable.

Tino Best, the Barbados fast bowler, has been called up to the West Indies

ESPNcricinfo staff22-May-2012Tino Best, the Barbados fast bowler, has been recalled to the West Indies squad in England after Shannon Gabriel, who made his Test debut at Lord’s, was ruled out of the remainder of the tour with a stress reaction in his back. Best is due to arrive in England on Wednesday.Gabriel only bowled five overs in England’s chase, during which he removed Kevin Pietersen, and subsequent investigation showed he would not be available for the second Test at Trent Bridge which starts on May 25. The management have decided to send him back to the Caribbean to recover. Kemar Roach (ankle) also struggled towards the end of the first Test while Ravi Rampaul missed the match with a neck problem.”Shannon made the complaint late in the first Test against England and scans conducted following the match showed a stress reaction in the lower spine,” CJ Clark, the West Indies physiotherapist, said.”He was subsequently ruled out of the second Test and, after further consultation, we feel that to prevent this injury developing any further, it is in Shannon’s best interest for him to return to Trinidad & Tobago for rest and rehabilitation to ensure he is fully fit when selected for West Indies in the future.”Best, 30, played the last of his 14 Tests in 2009 against Bangladesh in Grenada when West Indies were hit with a mass player walkout. However, he was recently named in the one-day squad for the series against Australia although, he did not make the XI for any of the five matches.He has taken 28 Test wickets at 48.67 with a best of 4 for 46, although his record against England is better with 13 wickets at 32.37 from five matches. One of those games came in 2004 at Lord’s which is where the well-known sledge “Mind the windows, Tino” came from Andrew Flintoff when Best was trying to slog Ashley Giles in the stands towards the end of the match.Best has forced his way back into contention with consistent performances in the regional four-day competition in the Caribbean where he picked up 17 wickets at 20.64 during the 2011-12 season.

Chris Taylor hit an unbeaten century to guide Gloucestershire to a 24-run Clydesdale Bank 40 victory over the Unicorns at blustery Bristol

02-May-2011
ScorecardChris Taylor hit an unbeaten century to guide Gloucestershire to a 24-run Clydesdale Bank 40 victory over the Unicorns at blustery Bristol.The county managed 195 for 6 from their 40 overs after winning the toss, Taylor contributing 100 not out off 98 balls, with nine fours and a six. New Zealand batsman Kane Williamson made 41 on debut while Unicorns bowler Dan Wheeldon took 3 for 31 from eight overs.In reply, the Unicorns never recovered from a spell of three for six off five overs from left-arm seamer David Payne (4 for 23), which reduced them to 43 for three on the way to 171 for nine. Skipper Keith Parsons hit a valiant 62 not out, off 77 balls, with three fours and a six, but the visitors never looked likely to reach their target on a tricky pitch of variable bounce.Payne was the pick of the home attack, but Will Gidman took a key wicket in Mike Thornely (31) on his way to figures of two for 29 from eight overs, while James Fuller claimed two for 27 from his eight. Parsons came in at the fall of the third wicket and battled hard without being able to raise the run-rate to the required level.Earlier, Wheeldon, who is playing minor counties cricket for Lincolnshire this season, had taken two wickets in the space of four balls to leave Gloucestershire seven for two. Skipper Alex Gidman was caught behind down the leg side, while Hamish Marshall was plum lbw to a ball that kept low.It was 26 for 3 when Ian Cockbain became Wheeldon’s third victim to another leg-before decision and Williamson found himself walking out to bat for the first time as a Gloucestershire player facing something of a crisis.He and Taylor steadied the ship without being able to take chances and their stand of 103 occupied 20 overs. The New Zealander was content to accumulate and had faced 69 balls, hitting only one boundary, when caught behind by Josh Knappett looking to pull Glen Querl.Will Gidman made 16 in a stand of 44 with Taylor, whose only six was lifted over square-leg off Neil Saker. But Gloucestershire were never able to cut loose and Taylor completed his ton in the final over, having held the innings together.Jonathan Miles conceded only 32 runs from his eight overs, while Neil Saker and Chris Peploe went for 38 apiece in a tidy Unicorns bowling display.

Steve Elworthy, the ECB’s head of communication and marketing, has outlined the lengths that English cricket has gone to in order to ensure that its competitions are not tainted by scandal and corruption

Liam Brickhill at Hove01-Jun-2010As England’s domestic Twenty20 tournament bursts into life with the first round of matches already underway, Steve Elworthy, the ECB’s head of communication and marketing, has outlined the lengths to which English cricket has gone in order to ensure that its competitions are not tainted by scandal and corruption, as the spectre of ‘spot-fixing’ hangs over the county game.”We’ve specifically asked the ACSU [The ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit] to enhance their monitoring of the tournament, so we’re working with them closely,” Elworthy told reporters shortly before the first game of the Friends Provident t20 tournament, between Sussex, the reigning champions, and Somerset, last year’s runners-up, at Hove .”The Professional Cricketers Association are also working with the ACSU in terms of the education of the players,” he added. “I’ve seen all the text, all the content that’s been sent to them in terms of their education and how they can report, where they report anonymously and the number of different areas and ways they can do it.”The ICC has gone to great lengths to clean up international cricket after the extent of potential corruption became clear in the wake of the Hansie Cronje scandal in 2000, but as the outgoing chief of the ACSU, Lord Condon, reiterated at Lord’s last week, there is still no room for complacency despite all the effort that has been put in.The ease of access to matches for bookmakers, through satellite TV and the internet, means cricket is still vulnerable, and especially so in domestic tournaments that do not attract the same amount of attention as international fixtures, and tend to have more meaningless matches that increase the potential for temptation.”Obviously, we need to eradicate it [match-fixing] out of the sport so we’re working pro-actively with the ACSU, so that if any approaches are made it’s something that’s reported and dealt with correctly,” Elworthy stressed. “It’s something that’s very closely monitored, specifically from my point of view, but also from a PCA education of the players’ point of view, they work with them very closely.”The Friends Provident t20 is extensively covered by Sky Sports, and any county game that is shown on television in the UK is also available in India and Pakistan through a reciprocal agreement.
That opens the way for the illegal market of betting, which is still believed to be rife on the subcontinent despite extensive attempts to clean up the game, but Elworthy believes that better policing of the problem of illegal betting, rather than tampering with television rights, is the way forward.”As far as not televising the matches in India and places like that, I don’t think you can do that. It’s a vital market in terms of television revenue, so I would hate to see that. It’s just the policing of it [that’s important].”The players are given people to phone about any approaches, so that mechanism is in place and they can do that anonymously. It’s the way to do it and it’s the only way that we can try and stamp this out.”But the problem remains a serious one. Shakib Al Hasan, Bangladesh’s captain, recently revealed that he was approached by a man whom he believed wanted him to manipulate the outcome of an ODI against Ireland in 2008, and Cricinfo understands that two of his team-mates were approached ahead of the same fixture. Meanwhile bookmakers also attempted to make contact with two Australian players during the World Twenty20 in England last June.That the rot may well have spread to domestic cricket is evidenced by the fact that two Essex players are currently under investigation for spot fixing, while questions still surround certain games in the now defunct ICL. While Condon stated that he had no reason to believe that IPL3 was tainted in any way, given the heavy involvement of the ACSU, the necessary infrastructure had not been in place for the first two editions of the tournament.As Twenty20 cricket continues to expand through competitions such the ECB’s latest version, it is vital that measures are in place to preserve their integrity and Elworthy believes the groundwork is being done to ensure that this is the case.”What we’ve tried to do is put the building blocks in place of a tournament that has integrity,” he said. “We’ve got a couple of years to build this tournament up into something, and from our point of view we’ve got those building blocks in place.”

Fred Klaassen and Daniel Doram have been ruled out because of injuries

ESPNcricinfo staff22-May-2024Fred Klaassen and Daniel Doram have been ruled out of the T20 World Cup, and Netherlands have added Kyle Klein, who was the lone travelling reserve, along with Saqib Zulfiqar to the squad as their replacements.Klaasen faced a recurrence of symptoms from a previously sustained stress fracture of the lower back while Doran was ruled out due to a broken hand.Netherlands are preparing for the upcoming T20 World Cup with a tri-series against Scotland and Ireland, where they have so far beaten Scotland comprehensively and lost to Ireland by one run in a close finish. Doram played both those games, returning 2 for 35 and 2 for 27 respectively, but Klaassen hasn’t featured at all.Zulfiqar, 27, has so far played six T20Is – to go with 15 ODIs – and has nine wickets at an economy rate of 6.46, while Klein, the 22-year-old right-arm medium pacer, has played just the solitary T20I and two ODIs till date. The T20I was against Nepal earlier this year, where he bowled just one wicketless over and gave away five runs.Klaassen (Kent) and Bas de Leede (Durham) were the Dutch players allowed to miss the Vitality T20 Blast by their English counties and released for the T20 World Cup, even as the experienced duo of Colin Ackermann (Durham) and Roelof van der Merwe (Somerset) had to stay on with their counties.Kyle Klein was a travelling reserve earlier•ICC via Getty Images

Zulfiqar, a legspinning allrounder, last played a T20I in 2019, while Doram, the Leeward Islands left-arm spinner, had earned a call-up to a full Netherlands T20I squad for the first time.The squad still has a left-arm spinner in Tim Pringle, though.Of the players who were likely to be picked but weren’t, Brandon Glover wasn’t considered as he continues his comeback after an injury, while Timm van der Gugten is out of action with a calf injury.Scott Edwards will continue to captain the side, as he did at the 2022 T20 World Cup.Netherlands have been drawn in Group D of the T20 World Cup, which starts on June 1, alongside Bangladesh, Nepal, South Africa and Sri Lanka, and start with a game against Nepal on June 4 in Dallas.

Netherlands provisional squad for the T20 World Cup

Aryan Dutt, Bas de Leede, Kyle Klein, Logan van Beek, Max O’Dowd, Michael Levitt, Paul van Meekeren, Scott Edwards (capt/wk), Saqib Zulfiqar, Sybrand Engelbrecht, Teja Nidamanuru, Tim Pringle, Vikramjit Singh, Vivian Kingma, Wesley Barresi

The Stump Mic crew discuss the history of the ‘mankad’, the debate that it generates and the ‘morals’ that come into play

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jan-2023Running the non-striker out while he or she is backing up – it’s in the laws, but is it a cheap dismissal or a wicket of skill? Andrew Fidel Fernando and Sidharth Monga join Karthik Iyer to discuss Rohit Sharma’s withdrawal of Mohammed Shami’s appeal to run out Dasun Shanaka on 98 in the first ODI against Sri Lanka.The crew discuss the history of the ‘mankad’, its main proponents, the debate that it generates and the ‘morals’ that come into play: