Notts consolidate top spot despite Moores, Clarke and Budinger’s absences

ECB Reporters' Network01-Jul-2021A half-century from Samit Patel saw North Group leaders Nottinghamshire Outlaws home by six wickets with 13 balls to spare as the Foxes slumped to an eighth defeat of the Vitality Blast season.Patel hit six fours and three sixes in his unbeaten 63 and shared a 99-run fourth-wicket stand with Ben Slater, who made 48 from 31 balls in his first Twenty20 match for three years, as the Outlaws chased down a target of 155, the Foxes dropping three catches on a poor night in the field.Legspinner Calvin Harrison took 3 for 20 and Luke Fletcher 3 for 31 as Leicestershire were bowled out for 154 in precisely 20 overs, Harry Swindells top-scoring with 36, Arron Lilley and Ben Mike each hitting 27.The Outlaws were forced to make three changes with Tom Moores unwell and both Joe Clarke and Sol Budinger obliged to wait for Covid tests after being alerted by the NHS app.An eventful Powerplay saw the Foxes post 47 for 2. They lost Scott Steel for a duck in the first over as Ben Duckett – keeping wicket for the absent Moores – showed neat glovework. Lilley survived on one as Fletcher and Lyndon James collided under a top-edged reverse-sweep and made them pay with 27 off 20 balls before he was yorked.They lost momentum after wickets fell in consecutive balls to Harrison, Josh Inglis finding long-off before Colin Ackermann chipped back to the bowler.Calvin Harrison was in the wickets•PA Images/Getty

Lewis Hill lofted sixes off Steven Mullaney and offspinner Matt Carter but was caught at midwicket off Fletcher, Rishi Patel was lbw sweeping as Harrison picked up his third wicket and Swindells misjudged a slower ball to be caught at mid-off. Naveen was run out and Fletcher was rewarded with wickets in his last two overs and though Mike clubbed two sixes off Ball, the Foxes’ total looked below par.Duckett, who hit Callum Parkinson to deep backward square, and Alex Hales, caught at point off Naveen-ul-Haq’s first ball, having just survived a run-out chance that saw Lilley ticked off for dissent. Peter Trego perished to a beauty from Naveen but 58 for 3 saw them ahead in the Powerplay.Patel was dropped at backward point on 10 off Naveen and at short midwicket on 26 off Steel, albeit both difficult chances, but he and Slater brought the target down to 71 at halfway. Slater had an escape when he was spilled at extra cover off Mike on 37.Slater missed out on a half-century, trapped in front by Parkinson, before Patel drove Naveen through the covers to finish the job.

A recap of the significant milestones in the competition’s five-year gestation

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Jul-2021September 2016
It was almost five years ago that the seeds for the Hundred were sown – little did we know it at the time. Late in the 2016 summer, the first-class counties finally voted in favour of the ECB’s idea for a new city-based competition, initially conceived as a T20 vehicle. Colin Graves, the ECB chairman, said: “We’ve all been looking at how we can use domestic T20 for an even bigger purpose, especially getting more young people to play. This format was invented here and is successful worldwide. It can excite new fans, attract the best players and fuel the future of the game, on and off the pitch.”Related

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October 2017
On a winter scouting trip to the Desert Springs resort in Spain, the ECB’s chief commercial director, Sanjay Patel, first put forward the idea of 100-ball cricket. Patel gave a presentation to Graves, ECB chief executive, Tom Harrison, and England director of cricket, Andrew Strauss, which pitched a shorter, simpler game than T20. “Don’t prejudge it,” he said, “just go away and have a think.” With a new broadcast deal banked, ensuring cricket’s return to BBC TV, the board was considering a radical move.April 2018
The 2018 season had barely begun when the ECB went public with its new plan. Instead of a T20 tournament, eight city-based sides would compete in a completely untested format – innings of 100 balls, broken down into 15 six-ball overs and a 10-ball finale. No, it was not an April fool. “This is a fresh and exciting idea which will appeal to a younger audience and attract new fans to the game,” Harrison said. Strauss later came in for criticism after suggesting a simplified game would be aimed at “mums and kids”.July 2018
With the ECB establishing a working group to fine tune the concept, now known as “The Hundred”, various ideas were put forward – including the abolition of the lbw law. Opposition from the Professional Cricketers’ Association (PCA) led to the abandonment of the 10-ball final over; instead, a switch to five-ball overs bowled in blocks of ten won favour, the reduction in end changes helping to save time. The option to retain a bowler for 10 consecutive deliveries, if a captain chose to, was also mooted.September 2018
Pilots of the new format were held at Trent Bridge and Loughborough, allowing players to finally see what they were getting into. Various different tweaks to the rules were introduced across the trial days – ranging from substitute fielders, tactical timeouts, and Powerplays of differing lengths. The reception from those involved was broadly positive. “I think the emphasis on the ball is really interesting and really important,” Kevin Shine, the ECB’s lead bowling coach, said. “We’re not thinking of overs, we’re not thinking of an innings. It’s that old cliché: every ball is an event.”View inside the studio ahead of the Hundred draft•Getty Images

October 2019
Work continued behind the scenes during an Ashes and World Cup summer, with a planned launch in 2020. The eight team names – Birmingham Phoenix, London Spirit, Manchester Originals, Northern Superchargers, Oval Invincibles, Southern Brave, Trent Rockets and Welsh Fire – were confirmed, and Test players allocated. Later the same month, the first sporting draft held in the UK took place at Sky’s studios in west London; Rashid Khan was the first player picked, followed by Andre Russell and Aaron Finch, as the teams set about selecting 96 players from a starting list of 571.December 2019
Playing conditions were announced for the Hundred, including confirmation of a 25-ball Powerplay, one strategic timeout per innings, and the provision for a new batter to always be on strike, even if the two in the middle crossed before the dismissal was completed.April 2020
The Covid-19 pandemic threw the entire 2020 season into disarray. With the prospect of any cricket being pushed back, and the likelihood of it having to be played behind closed doors, the ECB quickly took the decision to postpone the Hundred entirely. Commitment to the idea had not wavered, however, with Harrison describing the case for the tournament as being “much greater than it was”.October 2020
With the player draft having taken place a year earlier, the ECB had to rethink how teams for the 2021 tournament would be put together. Initial plans had been to allow 10 players to be retained from year to year – but in the event, men’s teams were allowed to retain as many as they wanted, with a period for negotiating new deals ahead of a mini-draft in early 2021. Players in the women’s teams were all given the option to roll-over their contracts.February 2021
Fixtures for the competition are announced, headlined by the decision to begin with a standalone women’s fixture at The Oval. The second draft was held behind closed doors this time, with Kieron Pollard and Nicholas Pooran among the overseas players picked up; while the advent of Brexit meant several of those expecting to be involved using their Kolpak status in 2020 missed out.England men’s Test captain Joe Root will play for Trent Rockets•Getty Images

April 2021
There was still time for new innovations to be floated, with a controversial suggestion that wickets could become ‘outs’, in order to make the game’s language more accessible. The idea was shelved soon after.June/July 2021
Amid uncertainty about travel restrictions due to Covid-19, and the requirements for players to quarantine, a number of overseas players started to withdraw from their deals. The women’s competition was particularly affected, with all 11 Australia internationals who had originally signed up eventually pulling out – including major drawcard Ellyse Perry. Wildcard selections, based on form in the T20 Blast, were also announced.July 2021
Despite concerns around rising Covid-19 infection rates, with requirements for self-isolating causing cancellations in the Blast and County Championship, Harrison says there will be no return to biosecure bubbles for the Hundred. Availability of England men’s Test players, initially planned for the first three matches, is reduced to two on the eve of the tournament. Playing conditions are finalised, with umpires to hold up a white card between sets of “five” (the term “over” will largely be dropped) from the same end; an amended version of Duckworth-Lewis-Stern will be used for rain-affected matches.After the longest of waits, the stage is set for the women of Oval Invincibles and Manchester Originals to take the field on Wednesday evening at The Oval.

Surrey face Durham in semi-finals on Tuesday, a day after Glamorgan play Essex

David Hopps15-Aug-2021It would be tempting to call Tim David’s match-winning hundred against Gloucestershire contemptuous, such was its mastery, but that would only cast more aspersions on standards in a 50-over tournament which is racing stout-heartedly towards its climax like a diminished Speed Dating event with the nation’s sexiest stars commandeered for the inaugural season of the Hundred.Surrey’s five-wicket win in this play-off against Gloucestershire gives them a semi-final against Durham at Chester-le-Street on Tuesday, 24 hours after Glamorgan face Essex. The final, at Trent Bridge, is a floodlit affair on Thursday and tickets for what was once the pinnacle of the season are only a tenner. Some Hundred players might theoretically be available, but whether they play in place of the young thrusters (some, not all, of them quite exciting prospects) who have kept the tournament alive is a different matter.David’s 102 encompassed 72 balls, with 11 fours and five sixes. He keeps things extremely simple: he sees things and deals with them. Vigorously. Maybe he should be in charge of the fixture list. He also figured in two run-outs, one of them his own, which fleetingly brought back memories of Surrey’s capitulation against Gloucestershire in the 2015 RL final, but in between he smote the ball to all parts to enable Surrey to surpass Gloucestershire’s modest 242 for 7 with five wickets and 44 balls to spare.He might also be the overseas player who the Hundred missed, a bear of a man shrewdly snapped up by Surrey for the Royal London Cup and the latter stages of the Blast. The Hundred deal never came for this Australian by way of Singapore, despite a big season for Hobart Hurricanes. He took a while to come to life, as if coming out of hibernation, but back-to-back hundreds at Kia Oval have left him with an average of 84.25 (outdone only by Durham’s Graham Clark among recognised batsmen) and a strike rate of 152.48 which is second to Dane Vilas among top run-getters. Anyway, it is as good as it gets although doubtless there may be a Batting Impact algorithm somewhere that suggests otherwise.David’s follow-up hundred was not quite as destructive as his remarkable 140 from 70 balls, with 11 sixes, against Warwickshire on Tuesday, but arguably it was no worse for that. His first wild shot probably came on 101 when he tried to put Matt Taylor onto the surface of Mars, but otherwise he just flayed balls that needed hitting. Gloucestershire’s bowlers have carried a weak top order all season, and that should be respected, but they asked him few questions.Jamie Smith was captaining Surrey at 21 in the continued injury absence of Hashim Amla, who fulfilled 12th man duties. Smith also made a controlled unbeaten 69 in a match-winning stand of 102 in 19 overs for the fourth wicket. The stand began after the run out of Ryan Patel, who pushed the ball straight to Chris Dent at short midwicket and was run out at the bowler’s end. It ended when Dent collected David’s push to short extra cover and attempted a lumbering return to his ground. Neither throw hit direct, but neither needed to.Gloucestershire’s total had owed almost everything an unbroken 105-run partnership in 111 balls from the pit of 137 for 7 between George Scott and Tom Smith. Scott, a former Middlesex all-rounder, produced a List A best while Smith’s unbeaten 51 not out was his second List A fifty.Smith swept particularly strongly against the spinners while Scott produced the stroke of the innings, a pick up six off Matt Dunn that sailed far over the mid wicket boundary, before also top-edging a high full toss from the same bowler over the fine leg ropes. With umpire Ian Blackwell rightly signalling for the no ball, that shot earned Gloucestershire eight runs.A slowly turning pitch disguised Surrey’s mediocre seam resources which could cost them dear in the climax to the competition. Dan Moriarty’s left-arm slows curbed the rate and Cameron Steel’s leg spin, although expensive, deserved better than his 1 for 55: he turned his googly substantially and his 33 county wickets in 61 matches smacks of under-utilised potential, even allowing for the standard of the competition.It was hard to find a wicket in Gloucestershire’s first seven that did not fall to batsman error. James Bracey, whose season began with England recognition, chipped back one of two wickets for David’s offspin off a horrible leading edge; Graeme van Buuren, playing as an overseas player while he waits to see if he can stay in England post-Brexit, was the only other batsman to threaten until his checked drive against Moriarty saw him fall at short extra on 37.Surrey’s reply also involved a brief and somewhat sad appearance from Ollie Pope who recovered from a thigh injury while in the England fold but who was released from the Test squad to play for Surrey in a competition that it can safely be assumed did not exactly smack, in its current guise, of career development. One does not have to look hard this summer to find a young England batsman looking glum in anything other than T20 (or its inferior substitutes) and here was another example.Pope made a single from three balls, the third seeing him leg before to a straight one from Taylor, a left-arm quick coming around the wicket. There was a time when it would just be recorded that Pope played across a straight one, but now off stump guard is all the rage so to avoid being drawn into another tiresome generational clash it is safest to observe that he missed it and whatever his mildly disapproving look at the umpire, Ian Blackwell, replays suggested that it would probably have shaved leg stump. Disapproval should best be aimed elsewhere.

Series will coincide with Australia’s three-Test tour of Pakistan; New Zealand will also host Bangladesh and South Africa for two Tests each

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Nov-2021T20 World Cup finalists Australia and New Zealand have added a three-match T20I series in New Zealand next March in the lead-up to the 2022 World Cup which will run concurrently with Australia’s tour to Pakistan.Cricket Australia and New Zealand Cricket confirmed on Friday that the two teams will meet in three T20Is in New Zealand on March 17, 18 and 20 in Wellington and Napier. Australia will need to send a separate T20I squad to New Zealand as they did earlier in 2021 when the two teams played a five-match series while Australia’s Test team was scheduled to play in South Africa, although the Test tour was subsequently cancelled due to CA’s covid concerns.Justin Langer missed the New Zealand tour with senior assistant Andrew McDonald taking charge of the team. David Warner, Steven Smith, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood also missed the five-match series in New Zealand. All would likely miss next year’s series as well given they will be required in Pakistan with the three Tests being played between March 3 and March 25. A three-match ODI series and one-off T20I will follow in Pakistan starting on March 29.CA confirmed that once again another T20I squad would be selected without the first-choice Test players, with the Pakistan Tests taking priority. CA chief executive Nick Hockley said the series was important for both nations despite it being shoehorned into the calendar alongside the Pakistan tour.”New Zealand’s home summer schedule has been heavily impacted by the pandemic, and we are pleased to be able to support our closest neighbour with this T20I tour,” Hockley said. “As well as supporting New Zealand Cricket to host a full summer of international cricket, it will also be a great opportunity for our men’s T20 team to ramp up their preparations ahead of our home ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in October and November next year.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

NZC chief executive David White was grateful for CA’s support with New Zealand’s closed border causing issues in terms of getting teams to travel there.”The impact of Covid-19 has meant a number of changes to our schedule – and we want to place on record our thanks to Cricket Australia for agreeing to send a team across the Tasman at such short notice,” White said. “NZC and CA have always enjoyed a close relationship and we really appreciate the lengths they’ve gone to in order to help us.”New Zealand’s 2021-22 schedule
New Zealand will kick off their 2021-22 home season with the New Year’s Test against Bangladesh in Tauranga. Christchurch will host the second and final Test of the series.After that, New Zealand will travel to Australia for three ODIs and a T20I although travel restrictions could still cause complications for that tour with the opening match set for Perth on January 30. Western Australia’s border could still be closed at the point depending on vaccination rates.In February, South Africa will visit New Zealand for a two-match Test series. The games will be played in Christchurch and Wellington.That will be followed by Australia’s above-mentioned visit for three T20Is. New Zealand will end their home summer with a T20I and three ODIs against Netherlands. This will be the first time New Zealand and Netherlands will be involved in a bilateral series in any format.All four Tests will be part of New Zealand’s World Test Championship title defence, and all the ODIs through the summer will count towards World Cup Super League for automatic qualification for the 2023 edition.

The rest of the Zimbabwe squad returned negative results

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Jan-2022Zimbabwe coach Lalchand Rajput will miss at least the first two games of Zimbabwe’s series against Sri Lanka after testing positive for Covid-19. Rajput, 60, is understood to be asymptomatic, though he was placed under observation at a hospital briefly, before being taken to a hotel for isolation.Rajput, who has been Zimbabwe head coach since 2018, did not travel with the squad, instead linking up with the team in Sri Lanka. The rest of the squad, which arrived from Zimbabwe, all tested negative.Zimbabwe’s squad left for Sri Lanka on Saturday to play three ODIs and were tested upon arrival. Rajput’s positive test will see him isolated for a minimum of ten days.”We are doing some routine tests and he will be able to go back to a hotel,” Arjuna de Silva, a Sri Lankan sports doctor, told . “There will be a 10-day quarantine period which means he will miss the first two matches.” The ODIs are scheduled for January 16, 18 and 21.Rajput’s isn’t the only Covid-related absence on this tour. Sri Lankan batter Avishka Fernando did not join the home side’s team bubble after testing positive for Covid-19 earlier this week. However, with three previously banned Sri Lankan players – Kusal Mendis, Niroshan Dickwellaand Danushka Gunathilaka – seeing their bans overturned, Sri Lanka have the personnel to make up for that absence. They are yet to announce their squad for the series.All three games are day-night contests and will be played at the Pallekelle Stadium in Kandy.

He is currently placed in isolation, and the match is expected to go ahead as scheduled

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Feb-2022Sri Lanka allrounder Wanindu Hasaranga has returned a Covid-19 positive Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) on the morning of the third T20I against Australia in Canberra. He is currently placed in isolation, and the match is expected to go ahead as scheduled.Hasaranga is the third member of the touring party to test positive for the virus after Kusal Mendis and Binura Fernando. Mendis, who returned a positive test on February 7, is expected to be available for selection for the third T20I after serving a seven-day isolation. Fernando, meanwhile, has been ruled out of the T20I series after testing positive on Saturday, the day after the series opener in Sydney.According to Arjuna de Silva, head of SLC’s medical department, Hasaranga will certainly miss the rest of the tour with Australian government protocols requiring a minimum seven-day isolation period upon contracting the virus. The series ends with the fifth T20I on February 20 in Melbourne.Hasaranga is also understood to be showing mild symptoms, but SLC are hopeful of having him back for next month’s tour of India.”He has some mild symptoms, some body aches,” de Silva said. “We think he probably contracted it from Binura. Unfortunately there’s no way that he’ll be able to play again on the tour, as he can only start training after three negative PCRs. After this tour, we’re going straight to India, so the aim now is to get him fit for that.”Hasaranga played in the first and the second T20Is, picking up a total of five wickets.Over the weekend, Hasaranga also bagged a big IPL deal when he was bought back by Royal Challengers Bangalore for INR 10.75 crore (USD 1.43 million). Hasaranga’s first team was also Royal Challengers and he had played two matches for them in IPL 2021.

Perry suffered back spasms and was forced off the field during Australia’s win against South Africa

AAP24-Mar-2022Injured allrounder Ellyse Perry has been ruled out of Australia’s last World Cup group game against Bangladesh on Friday, but they expect her to be fit for next week’s semi-finals.Perry suffered back spasms and was forced from the field during Australia’s win against South Africa on Tuesday. Australia’s physiotherapist Kate Beerworth said Perry’s back is settling with treatment.”She won’t play tomorrow but we expect that she will be available for the semi-final,” Beerworth said on Thursday.Perry was hurt when tumbling over a boundary rope in a fielding attempt against South Africa. She didn’t bat as Australia banked their sixth consecutive win of the World Cup.The Australians chased down South Africa’s 271 for 5 to win with 28 balls to spare after earlier in the tournament, reeling in India’s 277 for 7 to triumph with three balls remaining.Those victorious chases, propelled by captain Meg Lanning’s 97 and unbeaten 135, has further enhanced Australia’s belief, spinner Jess Jonassen said.”It’s huge, particularly for our batting group,” she told reporters on Thursday. “It was a really pleasing thing for our batting group to be able to go out and put a marker out there, I guess, make a statement.”The India game got a bit closer than we would have liked…[but] coming into our last-round game and then the finals, hopefully, it gives them even more confidence in higher pressure games.”And Jonassen warned that despite Australia’s perfect record in the tournament – they’re the only undefeated nation – there was some improvement to come.”It’s something that we have identified throughout the whole tournament so far that we are building towards this business end of the tournament,” she said. “I see Ash Gardner made the comments the other day that we’re looking for the perfect game, but ultimately, we are just looking to improve every game in different areas.”And we still have a bit to improve on, particularly with the ball. Against South Africa, we weren’t able to take wickets upfront, but we were able to hold them.”So just needing to tighten up in a few areas, which I think is really exciting considering we have gone undefeated whilst still identifying areas that we can still improve on.”

Mac Wright was left unbeaten on 78 when Tasmania’s tail fell swiftly in the final session

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-2022New South Wales 276 (Kerr 88) and 9 for 226 dec (J Sangha 75, Gilkes 64) beat Tasmania 213 (Wright 57, Doran 54, Tremain 5-48) and 214 (Wright 78*, Copeland 4-46) by 75 runsTrent Copeland and Jack Edwards were the key wicket-takers for New South Wales as they made it back-to-back Sheffield Shield wins with a hard-fought 74-run victory over Tasmania.Mac Wright played excellently for an unbeaten 78, to follow a half-century in the first innings, and Tasmania were still in with a chance of chasing down 290 in the final session before the last four wickets fell for 14 to a combination of Copeland and Chris Tremain.Copeland had earlier claimed his 400th first-class wicket when he produced a beauty which nipped back to bowl Beau Webster.Tasmania’s top order had made the home side work hard to add to the wicket they claimed on the third evening. Legspinner Tanveer Sangha provided the first breakthrough when he produced a good delivery to defeat Tim Ward then shortly before lunch Harry Conway found Eamonn Vines’ outside edge from around the wicket to end a 112-ball stay.Edwards’ part-time medium pace made an important impact during the afternoon when he lured Jake Doran into a drive which found point and he added a second early in the final session with a superb delivery to clean up Nivethan Radhakrishnan.At six down with and 127 still needed Tasmania might have considered trying to hang on but Tom Andrews played aggressively to move along at a run-a-ball as he and Wright added 37 in seven overs to bring the requirement down to double figures.But Andrews picked out mid-on against Copeland and the lower order went quickly. Jackson Bird was bowled by a delivery that kept low, Sam Rainbird’s off stump was nicked by Copeland and captain Kurtis Patterson held a good catch at mid-off from Peter Siddle to wrap up the match