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Zampa was the club’s leading wicket-taker in 2018, although they managed just two wins and finished seventh in the South Group

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Dec-2018Adam Zampa, the Australia legspinner, has signed for a second season with Essex in the Vitality Blast. He was the club’s leading wicket-taker in 2018, although they managed just two wins and finished seventh in the South Group.The 26-year-old took 12 wickets in 10 Blast matches with an economy of 7.90 in his first taste of county competition. Zampa could well be involved in the 50-over World Cup, which will run May-July in England, and is then expected to be available for a full Blast campaign with Essex, including potential participation in the knockout stages.”I’m looking forward to getting back to Chelmsford and playing in front of that great crowd again,” Zampa said. “We didn’t perform to the levels we were capable of last year and that’s something we all want to put right. The club and the fans deserve a good campaign and that’s what we’ll aim to deliver.”The announcement of Zampa’s return comes a few days after Essex signed Cameron Delport, the South African-born T20 specialist who qualifies for a UK ancestry visa, on a two-year contract.Zampa, who has experience of playing in the IPL, Big Bash League and Caribbean Premier League, was one of the few bright spots for Essex last season, as they failed to reach the quarter-finals for the second season running.Essex’s head coach, Anthony McGrath, said: “We saw how talented Zamps is with the ball last year and he’s one of the best legspinners around at the moment. He was excellent for us last season and he’s a great lad to have around the changing room, so we’re thrilled he’s going to be back with us from July.”

Sri Lanka posted their first home win in a T20I against Pakistan as Shashikala Siriwardene’s four-for flattened the visitors to 72 all out in Colombo

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Mar-2018Sri Lanka posted their first home win in a T20I against Pakistan, as spinners Shashikala Siriwardene (4 for 9) and Sugandika Kumari (2 for 15) bowled the visitors out for 72 in Colombo. The victory was Sri Lanka’s largest in terms of balls remaining, with 34 of them left unused when Siriwardene hit the winning runs.Pakistan were 37 for 1 in the eighth over after opting to bat when Siriwardene orchestrated the collapse, which saw them lose four wickets for 10 runs in the next two overs. The middle order’s Nida Dar and Kainat Imtiaz lost their wickets to run-outs as Pakistan were left reeling at 54 for 6. Sana Mir chipped in with 13 but after her dismissal in the 18th over soon led to the end of the innings.Spinners Ghulam Fatima and Mir kept Sri Lanka’s scoring tight as the hosts lost their openers within six overs, but a 29-ball 19 from Rebeca Vandort helped them regain stability and eventually level the three-match series.

ESPNcricinfo previews the three Women’s World Cup Games to be played on July 12, 2017

The Preview by Annesha Ghosh11-Jul-2017Five rounds, 21 matches and 18 days since its start, the Women’s World Cup is still without a confirmed semi-finalist. That will change after Wednesday’s triple-header that features all of the top five teams, each within a point of the other. If teams have equal points, then the semifinalists will be decided by most wins, then Net Run Rate, and finally head-to-head.

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Though they hold a 33-8 advantage in meetings against India, Australia have reason to be wary, having suffered their first loss of the tournament, against England. Captain Meg Lanning called for more discipline from the bowlers, with Australia conceding 32 wides.Lanning may also want to avoid too much experimentation in the slog overs. Her gamble of using the part-time medium-pace of Elyse Villani in the 50th over against England cost them 13 runs.Australia’s batting order struggled against left-arm spinner Alex Hartley. That could be the cue for India to add a fifth spinner in place of opener Punam Raut. Raut has scored only 85 off 143 balls in four games since her 86 against England. Left-arm spinner Rajeshwari Gayakwad’s ability to deftly flight the ball and get it to dip and turn, and the fact that she’s picked at least one wicket in her last nine ODI innings, including three four-wicket hauls and a three-for, should strengthen her case for inclusion.By extension, letting Deepti Sharma open with Smriti Mandhana would also help Mithali Raj ease back into her regular No. 3 slot. Batting a position down since the tournament opener against England has coincided with a slump for the Indian captain.Shikha Pandey, who had finished as India’s leading wicket-taker in the ODI series against Australia in 2016, explained the need for the team to impose themselves on their opponents to come out of the uncertainty the loss to South Africa has put them into. “We need to pull ourselves back from the defeat. The best cricket that we can play is there, so hopefully it will come against Australia. Our initial breakthrough has been a concern for us. We need to play more attacking cricket.”South Africa will bank on Dane van Niekerk’s imperious form•ICC

South Africa, red-hot after an emphatic 115-run victory against India, will be eyeing their fourth win in the tournament in Taunton against Sri Lanka.The last time the two sides met, at the World Cup qualifiers in Colombo, South Africa wrapped up a nine-wicket win with 85 balls to spare- one of the 10 times they have beaten Sri Lanka in 14 completed matches. Dane van Niekerk, the South Africa captain, however, refused to rest on history. “We know how good they are, and we’re not going to go out there underestimating them,” she said. “We are going to go there to play our best cricket, the way we have been playing and our brand, and hopefully, that is good enough to get another two points.”Van Niekerk would herself hold the key as South Africa chase a substantial win. Her nine wickets – the joint-most in the tournament – includes two four-wicket hauls. Equally crucial would be the potent fast-bowling pair of Marizanne Kapp and Shabnim Ismail, and opening batsman Lizelle Lee, who scored a 65-ball 92 against India.Sri Lanka, one of two winless sides so far, will look to put behind them their 47-run defeat to West Indies – the most recent of five consecutive losses. Top-order batsman Chamari Atapattu, the second-highest run-getter in the tournament, sounded optimistic. “We have played a lot of cricket against them, both home and away. I scored a few 50s and hundreds against them. I think we have a chance, and we will do our best.”In Derby, two of the more evenly-matched sides – England and New Zealand – will vie for ascendancy.On paper, there’s little to separate the two sides: 33 to 31 ODI wins in favour of New Zealand, England’s three hundreds and three fifties in this World Cup are closely matched by New Zealand’s one century, two 90-plus scores and three fifties, with both their captains having led from the front with match-winning tons.The one glaring difference is their results against Australia. While New Zealand failed to defend 219, England picked up their first World Cup victory over Australia in 24 years, powered by their veterans Jenny Gunn and Katherine Brunt who shone with both bat and ball.That win also gave England two crucial points that lifted them from fifth place to top of the table. Besides, the psychological advantage of benefitting from well-designed plans can barely be undervalued. If England had plans for Lanning’s shoulder injury, expect them to be equally tactful against Sophie Devine’s daunting strokeplay, Amelia Kerr’s wrong’uns, Lea Tahuhu’s immaculate lengths or Leigh Kasperek’s skiddy offbreaks.”Anyone can win from here, it’s brilliant to get that victory over Australia to head into the New Zealand match,” Gunn, who replaced the injured Fran Wilson in the playing XI, emphasised.All of that, however, is likely to have little effect on New Zealand’s captain, Suzie Bates, who said her side is game for everything England may have to offer. “We’d love to perform like this against someone like Australia, England or India, we haven’t done that yet, but it’s not to say that we can’t. I can’t wait for England, we haven’t played them a lot – they are a really talented side and have had some really good scores in this tournament. But we match up pretty well and it should be a really good game.”Having already endured a washout in their previous outing in Derby, against South Africa, New Zealand would hope the drizzle from match eve stays away when they take the field. While a win for England will guarantee them a spot in the semifinal, a second washout could severely dent New Zealand’s chances of making the top four, with only one league match remaining.In what is set to be the 100th ODI appearance for allrounder Amy Satterthwaite, Bates hoped New Zealand would be able to demonstrate their spirit. “The beauty of this team is having not just good cricket players but great people, we’re all here for the same reasons and we just want to win the World Cup.”

Moises Henriques is heading back to Surrey this summer two years after his first spell at the county ended in disturbing fashion after only three appearances because of a serious jaw injury

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Mar-2017Moises Henriques is heading back to Surrey this summer two years after his first spell at the county ended in disturbing fashion after only three appearances because of a serious jaw injury.Henriques suffered with a broken jaw in three places, and required three bouts of surgery after a jarring collision in the field with his Surrey team-mate Rory Burns in a NatWest T20 Blast game against Sussex at Arundel. But Henriques, who has underlined his full recovery by extending his Australia career in all three formats, has said he has “unfinished business” with the county.The allrounder will once again play in the domestic T20 competition, providing cover while former Sri Lanka batsman Kumar Sangakkara competes in the Caribbean Premier League.He told Surrey’s official website: “I’m really happy to be returning to Surrey, a great club where I really enjoyed myself in 2015.”As well as feeling like I’ve got a bit of unfinished business, the NatWest T20 Blast is well established as one of the top T20 competitions in the world and I’m really looking forward to playing against some of the world’s best cricketers in front of sold out London crowds at the Kia Oval.”Henriques joins his fellow Australian Aaron Finch, who will be available for the entirety of the competition, while Surrey further swelled their batting ranks earlier this month by re-signing Kevin Pietersen.

David Warner believes that allrounder Glenn Maxwell can be a Test specialist

Brydon Coverdale19-Jan-2016David Warner knows all about the progression from Twenty20 slogger to Test batsman. After all, Warner played T20 internationals before he had even made his first-class debut, and is now Australia’s Test vice-captain and the No.5 Test batsman in the world. Warner believes that allrounder Glenn Maxwell is on a similar path after bringing his batting back a gear in recent times.Although Maxwell has played three Tests he was far from a success, and internationally has been viewed more as short-form specialist with his magician’s bag of trick shots. However, Maxwell has worked hard on refining his batting in the past year, and at the MCG on Sunday night he steered Australia to a series win over India with a composed innings of 96, reaching fifty at a run a ball and pacing his effort to perfection.It was the kind of innings that arguably neither Warner nor Maxwell could have played at the start of their careers and Warner, who had been away on paternity leave after the birth of his second daughter, was watching with interest on television. He said he had no doubt that Maxwell’s progression in recent times suggested he could also become a Test batsman and add to his three caps, which were all won as a spinning allrounder in subcontinent conditions.”I was very, very excited to see Glenn Maxwell go out there, play a mature innings and get us home,” Warner said ahead of the fourth ODI in Canberra. “He’s been picking a lot of people’s brains and that’s the good thing about Maxy, he’s maturing with age and I think we’re yet to see his real talent.”We saw a glimpse of it the other night, a mature innings. In a BBL game I think he might have got 50 off 40 balls as well, without taking a risk. That’s what we have to keep reiterating with him, is he’s capable of doing that, he doesn’t need to come out and play that big shot from ball one.”Like all of us we like to hit a boundary in our first ten balls to get us off and going, but it’s exciting to see what he did the other day … There’s a few critics out there and we’ve all had them before, labelling him a Twenty20 specialist. I believe he can be a long-form specialist too.”Warner has rejoined the squad for the fourth match at Manuka Oval having missed the previous two matches, and he is likely to walk straight back in to open with Aaron Finch despite the success of his replacement Shaun Marsh. At the Gabba, Shaun Marsh made 71 and he followed up with 62 at the MCG, and Warner knows that the selectors face a tough call on how to structure such a successful batting order.”It is always good when you get time away from the game, but you don’t want to miss too much cricket because at the end of the day you’re giving an opportunity to someone else,” he said. “That’s fantastic but you’ve got to come back and you’ve got to be switched on and you’ve got to score runs as well.”The greatest thing about Australian cricket at the moment is we’ve got such good depth … There’s always pressure on every batter. You’ve always got to be at the top of your game, you’ve always got to keep continuing to score runs. It’s a fickle game, if you’re out of form it can cost your spot for a year or two.”

After watching Mustafizur Rahman make clever use of the cutter in Chittagong, Dale Steyn saw what he needed to do to get the most out of conditions in the second Test

Firdose Moonda30-Jul-20153:49

The game never got away from us – Steyn

You may think that Dale Steyn, an international cricketer of 11 years, 80 Tests and 402 Test wickets, would have something to teach Mustafizur Rahman, an international cricketer of three months, two Test and four wickets. But on this tour, it has happened the other way around. After watching Mustafizur make clever use of the cutter in the Chittagong game, Steyn saw what he needed to do to get the most out of conditions in the second Test.”We really try to seam the ball a lot more, that’s the main thing,” Steyn said. “There hasn’t been a lot of purchase off the deck, but we saw the young left-arm quick that Bangladesh have, he’s used his wrist very well and got a lot of movement off the deck. We took a note from that and realised that could be a strength of ours. If we can get a reverse we can move the ball through the air.”After a first Test in which Steyn found no swing or reverse-swing despite his best efforts – Allan Donald said he noticed Steyn was bowling with a scrambled seam as he would in one-day cricket rather than an upright one – Steyn found substantial reverse swing in the first afternoon of the second. Hashim Amla did not take the second new ball while Steyn reaped the rewards for what he had sown earlier.With the new ball, Steyn created pressure with his usual weapons: pace and aggression. “The new ball has been nice and hard and hasn’t offered a lot of swing. When the ball is really hard it’s nice to rush batters. You get a little bit more bounce, you might splice a guy, you might rush him for pace,” he explained.That was how Steyn snagged Tamim Iqbal – his 400th Test scalp – who was lured by the full length, though Tamim’s lazy shot selection did not help. “Tamim is an attacking batsman a kind of batsman that if you throw it up there he is going to throw his bat at it. There was just a little bit of bounce and I managed to find the edge.”But as the ball reached its mid-life, matters could have meandered. It got softer, so the extra bounce could not come into play and Steyn concentrated on stopping the scoring so that he could bring his second set of skills out later. “We didn’t let them get away with the game. The economy rate never got higher than 2.8 around there in the entire game so the game just never got away from us and they weren’t able to take the initiative and take the game forward.”Vernon Philander and Morne Morkel, to a lesser extent, were co-disciplinarians and apart from a brief period when Amla used spinners in tandem, his shrewd captaincy ensured one of them was always on hand to ensure Bangladesh could not get away with too much against Simon Harmer and the part-timers. Among South Africa’s bit-part bowlers, who are now doing well enough to be called all-rounders, Dean Elgar found the most turn, while JP Duminy enjoyed the most success.Their combined effort was an exercise in what happens when you win the waiting game. “Everybody bowled well. Vernon bowled well and Morne toiled really hard and was able to get wickets. The economy rate is going to be the main thing and patience, patience, patience, was the key,” Steyn said.”I think Bangladesh have gotten better over the years, but overall we were probably the more patient side at the end of the day and that’s why our economy rate was where it was and they weren’t able to get away from us. Our spare bowlers managed to maintain that pressure and bags a wicket, because the patience just kind of runs out. Then you bring the quicks back on and it’s bang-bang, like it was at the end. So it’s all-round been a fantastic bowling effort.”But it was not just bang-bang – Steyn got the old ball moving but using “the seam get revs on it and try to get the ball to reverse swing,” and asking questions Bangladesh’s lower-order did not know how to answer. “We always knew that once we get them to six down their lower order batters don’t tend to like hanging around.” It’s not wrapped up yet but that was the initial goal.”South Africa will aim to achieve that early on the second day so that they are batting before conditions become too difficult to do so. If they do, Mustafizur will have the chance to show whether he has learnt anything from Steyn in return.

Frustrated with the lack of progress in the development of cricket in the United States of America, the head of the nation’s youth cricket association has called on the country to relinquish its membership of the ICC.

George Dobell28-Aug-2013Frustrated with the lack of progress in the development of cricket in the United States of America, the head of the nation’s youth cricket association has called on the country to relinquish its membership of the ICC.Despite having been an been an associate member of the ICC since 1965, cricket remains a minority sport in the USA, with fewer than 10 grass pitches and only three of the current national side born in the country.USA’s membership has twice been suspended from the ICC and plans for a high-profile T20 league have never progressed beyond discussions. USA are currently in Division Three of the World Cricket League and USA Cricket Association, the official board, are believed to be US$2 million in debt and mired in controversy after highly criticised internal elections.Now Jamie Harrison, president of the volunteer organisation USA Youth Cricket Association has called for change. While Harrison is loathe to turn his back on the funding provided by the ICC – currently around $300,000 per year – he is among those to have lost faith in the USA Cricket Association, the official board, who have, he says, “proven itself incapable of establishing cricket as an American sport”.According to Harrison, if the ICC is unwilling or unable to see that USACA are part of the problem rather than part of the solution, the country would be better off without their involvement.”After nearly fifty years of Associate membership of the ICC, cricket in the United States still languishes as a niche sport for expatriates,” Harrison told ESPNcricinfo. “The national governing body has proven itself incapable of establishing cricket as an American sport and the world governing body sees America’s value solely in terms of the commercial prospects of its expatriate fan base.”Ample evidence exists to support the conviction that the United States has evolved into little more than a dysfunctional cricket colony, forever doomed to the backwaters of the international game, unless a new path is chosen.”It is clear to me that the time for this new path has come, and that for the immediate future, that path must shun ICC entanglements. Only by shedding its international rewards and responsibilities can America free itself from those in its current cricket administration, find true visionaries for its leadership, and turn its ample resources toward building a domestic game.”Rather than prop up a dysfunctional, unpopular body saddled with crushing debt that cannot act in the best interests of American cricket, the ICC should do the right thing and let us begin again, and if the ICC won’t get on the right side of the debate, then the USA should just do it without them.”The time has come for change. No longer is the status quo, where out-of-touch administrators smugly dictate to American volunteers, an acceptable state of affairs. We believe that a fresh start, a start controlled from the grassroots by those doing the hard work of building the game, is required.”One of the fundamental problems, in Harrison’s view, is the link between ICC funding and the success of the national side. It has, he claims, led to short-termism both in regards team selection and development funding with administrators chasing immediate gains and the expat market, to the exclusion of youth development and engagement.He hopes that, in time, the ICC will embrace the American Cricket Federation as a viable alternative to USACA.”The ACF is a relatively new national organisation that has attracted some of the best cricket administrators in the country to its ranks,” Harrison explained. “Its constitution and governance structure is superior to USACA and they go to great lengths to give representation to all cricket stakeholders. More to the point, its leadership is motivated by altruism, not ego-inflating ICC baubles.”The USYCA was formed by Harrison in 2010 with the intention of making a more vigorous effort to grow the game in the US, and claims to have reached around 250,000 school students, though that figure is disputed by the ICC. The association has distributed more than 1,500 cricket sets to schools across the country. But Harrison said he had found his efforts to push the game at the grassroots level had not corresponded to the way he feels the ICC sees the US – primarily as an extra marketplace for the current Full Member countries.Tim Anderson, global development manager at the ICC, accepted the development of US cricket had been “challenging” but insisted that USACA was now putting in place the changes required to progress.”It’s important to acknowledge the history of cricket in the USA,” Anderson told ESPNcricinfo. “The majority of cricket played in the USA is by people of Caribbean or south Asian backgrounds, and limited progress has so far been made in taking the game to the wider population. USACA has also faced governance and administration challenges in the past that saw it twice suspended by the ICC for failing to meet membership criteria.”But that approach wasn’t effective and therefore a closer working relationship has now been established. To the USACA Board’s credit, it has recognised that change is needed for the game to move forward more purposefully, and over the past year this has led to the appointment of a new CEO, the implementation of an independent governance review and the development of a new strategy and staffing structure that has a focus on both improving performance and growing participation.”We admire the work of USYCA and other youth development organisations across the USA that are promoting cricket to the youth of America. Their work supports USACA’s national development mandate and will hopefully assist in the long term realisation of cricket’s vast potential in the USA.”Darren Beazley, who became chief executive of USACA in February, admitted the long-term history of his organisation was “chequered”, but felt the short-term results promised far more.”I can’t deny there have been problems in the past,” he told ESPNcricinfo. “But we’re heading in the right direction now. We’ve made real progress in the last six months and I hope, in time, we can persuade Jamie Harrison to work with us.”

Tymal Mills’ best first-class figures of 4 for 25 helped Essex to a first-innings lead of 72 over Glamorgan

Alex Winter at Cardiff04-May-2012
ScorecardTymal Mills took 4 for 25, his best first-class figures, as Glamorgan collapsed again•Getty Images

Glamorgan have suffered several batting collapses already this season and again their innings crumbled to leave them without a batting bonus point in four attempts. Losing six wickets for 29 after tea was the latest embarrassment. It left them 72 runs behind and in danger of losing a fourth match of five, having not been able to get on the field last week at Bristol.The collapse was brought about by Tymal Mills, a 19-year-old playing his first season as a professional who can operate around the 90mph mark. He terrorised the lower order and took career-best figures of 4 for 25. The wickets came in a 31-ball spell after tea where he claimed 4 for 4 – quite a turnaround, having sent down three over before lunch that were so wayward he did not bowl all afternoon.”The first spell I tried to bowl what wasn’t in my game plan,” Mills said. “I wasn’t running in as well. I tried to bowl a fuller length, which was the right thing to do for a lot of the bowlers but not for me. After tea I just tried to bowl as quick as I can and ended up getting my rewards.”There will be plenty more rewards if Mills continues to bowl as quickly as he can, particularly against batting so short of confidence as Glamorgan’s. He gained an unexpected place on an England Lions’ tour in the winter. There is much competition between talented bowlers in England but, as Steven Finn has demonstrated, pace can get you quickly up the pecking order.His second spell was hostile stuff from around the wicket, too quick for the lower order. He hit Moises Henriques on the helmet ducking into a bouncer, the ball rebounding on to his stumps: a second bout of pain for Henriques who picked up a side strain that will prevent him from bowling in the second innings. Thankfully for Glamorgan, Australia international Marcus North arrives tomorrow to take up the overseas role from his compatriot Henriques. He has a major job to shore up this batting line up; they have consistently frittered wickets away.But one could empathise with Henriques. It was not the light to be facing seriously quick bowling – light which caused four delays throughout the match and looked to be sending this game even further down the path to a draw. But Mills has given Essex a handy lead that they could use to put a fragile Glamorgan side under pressure tomorrow afternoon.After clattering Henriques, Mills forced Dean Cosker to fend to second slip. When the players returned at 6.15pm he completed his haul, having Will Owen caught behind.Mills’ spell began with a big error from Stuart Walters. Having hooked Mills to the midwicket fence he tried again and found Mark Pettini at deep square leg to depart for 69. Earlier, Walters had added 54 in partnership with Gareth Rees before Rees shouldered arms to Greg Smith and was bowled. Suddenly 115 for 2 became 187 all out.Mills also took a catch, running back from mid-on to hold Nick James’ mistimed pull as no-one bar Walters went on with their innings and Glamorgan were left chasing another match.

Ian Bell believes Duncan Fletcher will be a “massive plus” for India in the upcoming Test series as he makes use of his time as England coach

Andrew McGlashan18-Jul-2011Ian Bell believes Duncan Fletcher will be a “massive plus” for India in the upcoming Test series as he makes use of knowledge gained during his time with England, but insists the current team is very different from the one Fletcher coached for eight years.Fletcher who will have an especially good knowledge of Bell and some of the other English batsmen, upon whom he really made his mark as a coach. Kevin Pietersen retains a very close friendship with Fletcher and the two have kept in contact in recent years especially when Pietersen has struggled for form.”It’s great for India, Duncan Fletcher knows English cricket very well and was very successful over here,” Bell told ESPNcricinfo. “He knows Straussy well, he knows myself, he knows Kevin Pietersen. I’m sure we’ve changed as characters and matured since he’s been away, but he’ll have a good insight and there’s no doubt that’s a massive plus for India.”But in world cricket now information, strengths and weakness, everyone knows about them. We have people working non-stop at Loughborough on stats, percentages and stuff like that. There’s no hiding place anymore, so while it’s an advantage for India to have him everyone has information about opposition.”Whether Fletcher has compiled a dossier on England’s players remains to be seen, Bell is in no doubt about his strengths as a coach. “He’s quite a quiet man and goes about his business in his own way,” he said at an adidas event. “He’ll know everything about what England have. In 2005 he was a massive part of the plans we had for the Australians – like going round the wicket to Adam Gilchrist – and he’s got an unbelievable cricket brain. That’s his massive strength. We know he’s an incredible coach.”Bell, who made his Test debut in 2004, spent his formative years as an international cricketer under the guidance of Fletcher but is one of best examples of a player who will be very different to the one Fletcher remembers. He is averaging over 300 in Tests this year and is confident that a quiet one-day series against Sri Lanka, where he struggled to adapt to the No. 6 position, won’t have burst his bubble.”I don’t think I’ve spent enough time at the crease to lose form,” he said. “In one-day cricket I was doing a different role and to be honest I feel fresh and mentally read to go. I just want to pick up the form I’ve had for the last couple of years. I really do feel I’m a fully rounded Test cricketer and [I’m excited about] what the next five years hold. I’m desperate to keep improving and have the hunger to get better. We’ve got some massive goals we want to achieve over the next year as a team.”One of those major team goals is to overtake India as the No. 1 Test team in the world which can be achieved if they win the series by a margin of two Tests. However, the visitors will be strengthened by the return of Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Gautam Gambhir who were among players rested for the West Indies tour, though all three struggled against Somerset over the weekend. The batting order is full of big names, but Virender Sehwag will miss at least the first two Tests as he continues to recover from shoulder surgery.Zaheer, despite taking 0 for 72 against Somerset and looking short of match fitness after a lengthy lay-off, is expected to form a potent new-ball partnership with Ishant Sharma, while Harbhajan Singh will be the main spin option. Bell, though, insists England won’t be overawed by the prospect of facing them.”We respect them, but you can’t over-respect them. You have to have the confidence that you can beat them,” he said. “India are No. 1 in the world and you don’t just do that by having six great batsmen, you do that by taking 20 wickets. They’ve got world-class bowlers, but that can also bring the best out of our team.”Last time here Zaheer was incredible, and Harbhajan Singh has just hit 400 Test wickets so it’s a massive challenge,” he added. “When we played in the Ashes we raised our game and that’s what we need to do in this series. It’s two form teams going head-to-head and you can’t ask for better than that. It’s the No. 1 form of the game and as players we want to keep it that way.”Ian Bell will play in this summer’s Test series against India with the adidas Incurza bat, designed for the more aggressive, forceful player. For stockists visit www.adidas.com

England inched their way into the Super Eights after a tense washed-out contest at Providence, as the same Guyana weather that had contributed to their downfall against West Indies came to their aid

The Bulletin by Andrew Miller04-May-2010England 120 for 8 (Morgan 45) v Ireland 14 for 1 – match abandoned

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

Hawkeye
Kevin O’Brien was one of the stars of the show as Ireland kept England’s batsmen in check•AFP

England inched their way into the Super Eights after a tense washed-out contest at Providence, as the same Guyana weather that had contributed to their downfall against West Indies came to their aid in a fraught and low-scoring contest against the underdogs of Ireland.After being limited to a mediocre 120 for 8 following a superb bowling display led by Trent Johnston, England had restricted Ireland to 14 for 1 after 3.3 overs of their reply, but persistent bad weather denied them the chance to complete their run-chase, and so England went through by virtue of a superior run-rate.It was a cruel way for Ireland’s campaign to come to an end, because on a slow and cracked surface, their battery of medium-pacers had forced England to scrap for each and every single. And, in an ironic twist, the only man who came close to mastering the requirements was none other than the former Irishman, Eoin Morgan, who stood firm with a determined 45 from 37 balls.The scenario was much as it had been when the teams last met in an international fixture, on a sticky surface at Belfast back in August, and then as now, the veteran Trent Johnston led the line impeccably. With lateral movement from a tight and full length, he claimed 1 for 14 in his four-over spell, with just a solitary boundary in his 24 deliveries, as Michael Lumb pulled a fractional short ball through midwicket for four.Whereas Lumb and Craig Kieswetter had started like the clappers against West Indies on Monday, this time they found the shackles hard to break. Boyd Rankin spoiled his figures with a brace of leg-stump long-hops that Lumb clipped round the corner for two welcome boundaries, but that same shot soon proved to be his downfall, as Boyd Rankin stooped at short backward square to cling onto a sharp chance from the first ball of Kevin O’Brien’s spell.One ball earlier, Kieswetter had been badly dropped by Andre Botha as he edged a lifting seamer from Johnston through the slips, but he couldn’t make his good fortune count. In Johnston’s next over, he set off for a suicidal single to short midwicket and was rightly sent back by the stationary Kevin Pietersen. As he dived, his bat bounced in the crease, and after a lengthy analysis the third umpire, Asad Rauf, sent him on his way for 13.In the same Johnston over, England’s innings really hit the skids as Paul Collingwood edged a fizzing seamer to Botha at slip, who this time made no mistake to send the captain on his way for a third-ball duck. At 32 for 3 at the end of the Powerplay overs, England had made almost half as many runs as they had managed in their first six overs against West Indies, for the loss of three more wickets.And three soon became four as Pietersen – who had been engaged in a game of cat-and-mouse with the 17-year-old left-arm spinner George Dockrell – picked out John Mooney with an exocet to deep square leg off O’Brien, in a near-replica of his dismissal in the West Indies game. At the halfway mark of the innings, England were floundering at 49 for 4, with all of their hopes invested in a certain former Irishman, Morgan.Morgan did what he could in the trying circumstances, clipping Alex Cusack through short fine leg before bludgeoning Dockrell through midwicket, but at the other end, Luke Wright found the conditions especially tough to negotiate, and Dockrell tied him in knots in a masterful fourth over, consisting of five dot-balls in a row followed by a wild top-edged mow that landed in no-man’s land for a single.Ireland’s reply was an anxious affair for both sides. England started diligently enough through Tim Bresnan and Ryan Sidebottom, but having conceded four runs from eight deliveries the rains arrived to force a 30-minute delay – much to Andy Flower’s chagrin, who was seen banging the dressing-room table in disgust.No overs had been lost when play resumed, and four balls after the resumption, Lumb took off at deep midwicket to cling onto a full-blooded pull to remove Paul Stirling for a duck, but Niall O’Brien belted two fours in a row moments before the second interruption to improve Ireland’s hopes of a favourable Duckworth-Lewis calculation.Had the match been able to resume 15 minutes before the cut-off time of 4.59pm local time, Ireland would have been set a target of 61 in nine overs. But it was not to be, as rain saved England, only 24 hours after apparently robbing them blind. Twenty20 is indeed an unpredictable form of the game.