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South Africa stand on the cusp of their most successful period under Graeme Smith, who was keen to finish the summer on a winning note

Firdose Moonda in Centurion21-Feb-2013The last time Graeme Smith captained South Africa in a dead rubber, the team had just won a series in Australia. Little else mattered but Smith batted with a broken hand to try to stave off defeat in the third Test even though it had no bearing on the bigger picture.One of the most marked differences between the current South African side and the one of 2008-9 is that closing the deal at the earliest opportunity is more important to this lot. “We’ve been through some growth periods. Certain things didn’t work then as they are now,” Smith said. “Systems in the team are running a lot better and some processes are a lot more professional. We’ve taken that step that we were searching for.”The focus on being more clinical has paid off. South Africa stand on the cusp of their most successful period under Smith. Never before under Smith’s captaincy have South Africa won all the Test matches in a home summer as they could with victory in Centurion. Never before have they won five in a row as they have now and never before have they been as determined to keep the intensity up.”Being mentally sharp is going to the challenge but I think we will be,” Smith said. “The energy at training was good and we would love to finish our summer of Test cricket on a positive note.”A whitewash will be nothing more than a show of dominance but it is important in establishing themselves as ruthless, especially since South Africa disappear from the Test circuit after this match. Attention will fall on India’s series against Australia and the Ashes and the No.1 ranked side in the world will have to wait until October before they play again.The break in the schedule may rob South Africa of the chance to play at their peak but that is something no-one can control. They would have featured sooner had the July-August tour to Sri Lanka not been turned into a limited-overs only affair and Smith did not show too much disappointment at that. “We would love to have carried on the momentum we’ve started and to keep playing and playing well but when you’ve played for a long time you deal with things as they come.”Smith was even able to spot a positive in the long break before facing Pakistan in UAE in October. South Africa will use the Centurion Test to study their opposition closely in preparation for their return clash. “When we start playing again later in the year there won’t be any time to find our feet again. Hopefully the confidence will be as strong as it is now. The squad is performing well as a group. We’ve got some highly skilled players. Hopefully we can pick up from that.”Growing that legacy is the immediate goal and winning in Centurion will go some way to realising that. It is also the chance for Smith to notch up another achievement. Should South Africa emerge victorious, Smith will have his 50th victory as Test captain, something no other leader has achieved. At Newlands he overtook Allan Border as the captain with the most Test victories and at the Wanderers, he became the only person to captain a team 100 times in Test cricket.The accolades are so regular, Smith doesn’t have the words to describe what they mean to him anymore, except to say he wants to keep going. “I’m running out of things to say. I am looking forward to that number growing even more. It’s a great achievement for me and the guys that I have played with.Hopefully when I reflect back on this one day I can say that as a team we did ourselves proud and not that we left ourselves short. I will be extremely proud to saying I could take South Africa to No.1 in the world and that we could stay there.”

The England Performance Programme (EPP) bowlers shared around the success on the opening day of their latest match against Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Dec-2012
ScorecardThe England Performance Programme (EPP) bowlers shared around the success on the opening day of their latest match against Dr DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai. The home side closed on 219 for 7 with Vinit Indulkar unbeaten on 69 to ensure the EPP side had to spend a full day in the field.James Harris and Ben Stokes took two wickets apiece, both bowlers striking in consecutive deliveries, as the hosts fell to 116 for 5. The opening partnership between Shrideep Mangela and Bhavin Thakkar spanned 20 overs before Harris struck twice. Mangela progressed to 55 before he fell to Chris Wright.Stokes, the Durham allrounder, who has tasted full international cricket, then found two edges that were taken by Craig Kieswetter, the captain of the EPP side.Unlike the first match the EPP side played, where Scott Borthwick and Simon Kerrigan were among the wickets, there was less success for the spinners this time. With the squad being rotated, Danny Briggs, who is part of England’s Twenty20 squad, and Yorkshire’s Azeem Rafiq were given their chance and Rafiq claimed the one wicket for spin in the day.The EPP will have had visions of batting towards the end of the day but Indulkar, who faced 199 balls and hit eight fours, added 58 for the seventh wicket with Sufiyan Rehmani.

A brief rain delay was the major obstacle for Tasmania as the hosts completed a first outright victory of the season by 182 runs over South Australia

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Nov-2011
ScorecardA brief rain delay was the major obstacle for Tasmania as the hosts completed a first outright victory of the season by 182 runs over South Australia on the final day of the Sheffield Shield match in Hobart.Chasing a distant 402 to win, the Redbacks were given a sound start by Michael Klinger and Daniel Harris, but the rest fell away in abject fashion as Xavier Doherty and James Faulkner shared seven wickets between them, interrupted only by rain around the lunch interval.The result pushes Tasmania up to fourth on the Shield table and only one outright win out of second spot, while SA are stranded at the bottom of the table with only two points from four matches.

Head coach Ben Sawyer and assistant coach Craig McMillan oversee ten New Zealand players including Jess Kerr, Brooke Halliday and Georgia Plimmer

Deivarayan Muthu10-Aug-2025New Zealand have ramped up their prep for the upcoming Women’s ODI World Cup in India and Sri Lanka with a two-week camp in spin-friendly conditions at the Chennai Super Kings Academy in Chennai.While a number of Black Caps, including Rachin Ravindra, have frequented the high-performance facility in the recent past, this is the White Ferns’ first specialised overseas camp and the timing of it has been “perfect,” according to head coach Ben Sawyer, who is overseeing ten New Zealand players in Chennai along with assistant coach Craig McMillan.”Yeah, 100% correct. It’s currently winter in New Zealand, there’s no cricket and we’re nearly two months out of the World Cup,” Sawyer told ESPNcricinfo. “So, to have that prep time in India, we’ve been able to bring seven contracted players and then three of our players of interest along. So, the girls that we think will play lots of cricket in India in the future as well. So yeah, it’s been an amazing experience so far.”Related

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• Craig McMillan named full-time NZ women's assistant coach ahead of ODI World Cup

• Bree Illing and Bella James earn maiden New Zealand contracts

• Devine to retire from ODIs after the World Cup

Seam-bowling allrounder Jess Kerr, opening batter Georgia Plimmer and Brooke Halliday, who had scored 38 off 28 balls in the T20 World Cup final last year, which New Zealand won, are among the seven contracted players on tour while Izzy Sharp, Flora Devonshire and Emma McLeod have been included as emerging players.After the Chennai camp, New Zealand’s players and staff will return home and will likely head to Dubai to play one-dayers against England in the lead-up to the ODI World Cup, which will kick off on September 30. Sawyer believes that exposure to stifling conditions in Chennai and Dubai will tune up New Zealand’s players for similar conditions that may face during the ODI World Cup.”Yeah, it’s hugely beneficial and even more so this year because just with the FTP cycle, we’ve had no official matches since February,” Sawyer said. “So to get these three one-day games in Chennai, to get two or three games in Dubai against England, a really strong opposition, will be great and then we also get the two World Cup warm-up games. So that’s seven or eight games we’re going to get in similar conditions. Yeah, that’s just huge for us.”Jess Kerr runs in to bowl during New Zealand’s time at the Super Kings Academy•Super Kings Academy

New Zealand’s team management is also leaning on inputs from High Performance Sport New Zealand and Dr Kirsty Fairbairn, an experienced dietitian who has worked with both the White Ferns and Black Ferns (the women’s rugby team), to look after their players in subcontinent conditions.”We’ve actually tried to train really hard the last five days and I guess in a way not to recover, try to just do it naturally and let your bodies adapt to the conditions,” Sawyer said. “And now we’re playing the three games, we’ll try and recover really well.”But yeah, we’ve actually tried to expose ourselves as much to the heat as we can. So, we’ve had some really good help from High Performance Sport New Zealand and a guy that helped with the Tokyo Olympics and how they dealt with the heat. He’s basically told us that the week here and then the week in Dubai are probably perfect timings for the World Cup.”The presence of India internationals such as Asha Sobhana and D Hemalatha, Tamil Nadu’s teenage prodigy G Kamalini, who had won WPL 2025 with Mumbai Indians, and Swiss international Meghna Rajan has added a competitive edge to the camp. Asha castled Polly Inglis on Saturday and tested other New Zealand batters with her loopy legbreaks and wrong’uns on a sluggish surface.”Getting balls to face in New Zealand during the winter is really difficult,” Sawyer said. “We’ve had WPL players come down to bowl to us and Asha from RCB is with us here in the camp and it’s been great for our girls to chat to her and learn about these conditions.”Just a few days into the camp, Sawyer is impressed with the positive approach of the New Zealand batters against spin.”I think Izzy Sharp is a great example today,” Sawyer said. “She made 80. She played a lot off the back foot, but then was able to get really close into the pitch of the ball. And Sri (Sriram Krishnamurthy, former NZC pathway coach who is now CSK academy’s head coach) was great the other day, gave us a bit of a masterclass in playing spin.”And it was great to see Izzy use her feet today and get down the wicket really quickly. Maddy Green’s a great player. She did it her way [with sweeps and reverse-sweeps], she did it in a different way to Izzy, but both were successful and that’s what we’ve spoken about.”While this group is sweating it out in Chennai, Suzie Bates had posted a career-best 163 for Durham last month and Sophie Devine and Amelia Kerr are currently playing in the Hundred. It’s still winter in New Zealand, but the team management has ensured that their players won’t rock up cold at the World Cup.”You can see we brought a lot of younger players because the likes of Sophie, Suzie and Lea Tahuhu have been here before and Sophie is at the Hundred,” Sawyer said. “Paul Wiseman is with our spinners in Lincoln and a few of our quicks are working with Graeme [Alridge] in various locations. So, everyone’s getting what they need. Some players are actually doing a few sessions in heat chambers back home. I think we’re doing as much as we can to prepare for the conditions [at the World Cup].”

Hobson smashed Bartlett for 24 in the final over of Scorchers’ innings and they carried the momentum thereon

Tristan Lavalette26-Dec-2024Nick Hobson again proved a thorn in Brisbane Heat’s attack before Perth Scorchers produced an outstanding effort in the field to claim a pivotal 33-run victory at Optus Stadium.In front of 41,921 fans, Scorchers struggled after being sent in to bat on a fast and bouncy surface before Hobson smashed an unbeaten 47 off 16 balls to lift them to 165 for 6.They carried over the momentum in the field and their disciplined bowling performance was highlighted by rapid bowling from speedster Lance Morris. Heat were never in the hunt after early wickets and were bowled out in the final over.Related

• Ashton Turner signs four-year contract extension with Perth Scorchers

Scorchers ran out easy winners to convincingly halt a two-match losing streak, while defending champions Heat suffered their first defeat of the season.

Hobson’s late heroics overshadows Allen’s struggles and Hardie’s return

Finn Allen was Scorchers’ big recruit this season and he started the season with a first-ball six against Melbourne Stars but it’s been all downhill since then. In his previous three innings, reaping just 10 runs, Allen has gone for broke from the get go but he started watchfully against left-arm quick Spencer Johnson. After failing to score off his first four deliveries, the pressure built and an edgy Allen then threw his bat hard at a full delivery only to edge Johnson to backward point.Cooper Connolly has been Scorchers’ best batter this season and made 37 off as many balls, but struggled to strike the ball with his usual fluency. Scorchers did regain allrounder Aaron Hardie, who made his season debut as a specialist batter at no.4 – a spot lower than his customary position which has been filled by Connolly.Hardie has been sidelined since the Pakistan white-ball series last month due to a nagging quad injury. He looked understandably rusty until giving himself room and smashing seamer Xavier Bartlett for a huge six over long on. It proved his best shot with Hardie holing out off left-arm spinner Matthew Kuhnemann. He made 24 off 23 balls before Scorchers gained a late flurry from Hobson, who famously provided heroics in the epic BBL12 final between the teams.Hobson, well known for being an accountant in his day job, has been working very hard in recent times to build up his power-hitting and become a specialist finisher. His ever-improving muscular game was on show as he smashed Bartlett in the final over for 24 runs to lift Scorchers to a total that seemed implausible just moments earlier.

Johnson stars, spinners bowl well in tandem

Heat did start well through a superb opening spell from Johnson as Scorchers scored just 18 runs in the powerplay. He enjoyed a successful return in his season debut after missing their opening two matches with a toe injury.Spencer Johnson upped the heat with a four-wicket haul•Getty Images

Skipper Colin Munro turned to spinners Kuhnemann and Mitchell Swepson in the middle overs and they bowled with control to ensure the run-rate didn’t blow out of control. Swepson, particularly, mixed up his speeds well to ensure the batters could never find rhythm. Heat’s bowlers were backed up by slick fielding and catching until being swamped late by Hobson.Kuhnemann dropped a very high ball off Ashton Turner in the penultimate over before a rattled Bartlett lost his radar against Hobson.

Morris fired up, spectacular fielding

Morris had a point to prove. After being dropped from the team following a pummelling at the hands of Hurricanes opener Mitchell Owens, Morris returned to favourable conditions and unleashed on the fast and bouncy surface. He was perhaps fortunate after dismissing Tom Banton on his first delivery with a strangle down the legside. It was the confidence boost Morris needed as he bowled a hostile spell with the new ball and reached speeds of 148 kph.Scorchers were aided by brilliant fielding. Firstly, Ashton Agar produced a moment of magic in the field when he ran out Jimmy Peirson with a direct hit from point after initially pulling off a stop with his right hand before transferring the ball to his favoured left arm for the throw.Allen also spectacularly threw down the stumps from backward point to run out Nathan McSweeney. It was Allen’s most significant contribution this season and might be the tonic he needs for a turnaround with the bat.

Renshaw, Bryant shine briefly

Heat’s batters struggled to handle the conditions with the surface noticeably quicker than the season-opener between Scorchers and Stars. The exceptions were Matthew Renshaw and Max Bryant, who both clubbed the ball sweetly.After he was given an early life when wicketkeeper Matt Hurst dropped a catch off Agar, Renshaw looked in awesome form and smashed quick Matthew Kelly for consecutive sixes.But the task proved too great as Renshaw holed out to Andrew Tye in the 11th over after he smashed 36 off 24 balls. Bryant hit 35 off 20 balls but it was in vain.

A taxing few months and a desire to spend time with family led to the decision to sit out of KKR’s campaign, the opener said

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Apr-2024Jason Roy has revealed that he opted out of the ongoing IPL 2024 with Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) to put his “mindset and body” first.Roy had joined KKR in 2023 for INR 2.8 crore (US$341,000 approx.) as an injury replacement. After scoring 285 runs at an average of 35.62 and strike rate of 151.59, he was due to return this season until he pulled out at the start of March citing personal reasons. He was subsequently replaced by England and Lancashire batter Phil Salt.It has been a challenging 18 months for Roy. Having missed out on selection for England’s T20 World Cup squad in 2022, he endured the same fate last October when he did not make the squad for the defence of the 50-over title he was integral to in 2019. He also went undrafted for this year’s Hundred following his release from 2023 champions Oval Invincibles. Last May, Roy had terminated his ECB incremental contract to play the inaugural season of Major League Cricket (MLC).After finishing the year in the T10 for Chennai Braves, Roy started 2024 in the SA20 for Durban’s Super Giants before playing two ILT20 games for Abu Dhabi Knight Riders. Five days later, he embarked on a ten-match stint with Quetta Gladiators in the PSL.Speaking on the latest podcast, Roy explained that a taxing second half of the winter and a desire to spend quality time at home with his family led to the decision to sit out this edition of the IPL.”Missing this year’s IPL was a huge decision, I think,” Roy said. “KKR put so much trust in me by retaining me after a decent year last year and being available for them throughout the year and all the other competitions, you know, I felt like I owe them a huge amount. It was a very big decision, but a decision I came to just because it was my daughter’s fifth birthday as soon as our first game was, there were a few things going on, I was quite tired after the start of my year.”I’ve come off the back of not a huge amount of cricket, so the last couple of months have really taken it out of me. And so I was very honest to KKR and we’ve got a fantastic relationship, so we were able to come to an agreement and stuff like that on why I wasn’t coming. They completely understood so I’m very grateful to them for that. But I just had to put myself first, you know, just mindset and body.”Roy’s withdrawal was also informed by a period two years ago in which he found himself “in a dark place”, which resulted in him taking an indefinite break from the game and missing IPL 2022 with Gujarat Titans. It was around this time – in March of that year – that the 33-year-old was reprimanded by the ECB for “conducting himself in a manner which may be prejudicial to the interests of cricket or which may bring the game of cricket, the ECB and himself into disrepute”. Roy, who admitted to the charge, was fined £2,500 and handed a suspended two-match ban.Jason Roy wasn’t selected by England for the defence of the 50-over title he was integral to in 2019•Getty Images

“A couple of years ago, I went through an extremely bad patch with my mindset,” he said. “With my mental health and stuff, and I pulled out of the IPL when I was signed with Gujarat, and you know that was for a completely different reason. That was because I was in a dark place, I was in a shocking headspace, and it was sort of my own doing.”I kind of said to myself, ‘I’m okay, I’m okay’, and I kept going, and I kept playing, and I stayed away from home. And you know, I ended up just shooting myself in the foot. This year and from that point, I basically said to myself, I’m just going to listen to my head, listen to my heart and figure it out from there on in.”That was a huge learning curve for me, to be able to make decisions like I have this year, you know, and it can look a certain way. But it’s nothing to do with anyone else, it’s absolutely nothing to do with anyone else.”It’s your decision – I’ve got a young family, I’m a grown man and I’ve made the decision off the back of a lot of thoughts. I’ve not just woken up one morning and thought, ‘You know what – I actually don’t feel like getting on that flight to India’. A lot of thought has gone into it, and yeah, it’s become far easier to talk about and a far easier decision, just because you know, especially from past experiences, what that can do to you.”

Pakistan allrounder goes straight into squad for upcoming fixture against Nottinghamshire

Matt Roller25-Apr-2024Warwickshire have signed allrounder Aamer Jamal on a multi-format contract until the end of July, after he was left out of Pakistan’s ongoing T20I series against New Zealand.Jamal announced himself to the world by taking 18 wickets in three matches in his maiden Test series for Pakistan in Australia late last year, and has also played six T20Is. He was part of a training camp at the Pakistan Military Academy in Kakul earlier this month, but does not appear to be part of their T20 World Cup plans after missing out on selection against New Zealand.He will be available until the end of the T20 Blast group stages and has been named in Warwickshire’s 14-man County Championship squad to face Nottinghamshire at Edgbaston from Friday. “He’s jumping out of his skin to be on the park on Friday,” Gavin Larsen, Warwickshire’s performance director, said.Related

• Aamer Jamal leaves Warwickshire early after injury-blighted stint

Mark Robinson, their coach, said he would make a late call on Jamal’s inclusion after he arrived in Birmingham on Thursday. “He’s raring to go. It’s fantastic he’s itching to get straight into action with us but he hasn’t played a competitive game for a few weeks, so we’ll see where he’s at and make a decision tomorrow.”Larsen said: “He really captured the cricket world’s attention in Australia. He took the Aussies on with good pace, bounce, and a combative approach, all attributes you want in a fast bowler. Pat Cummins was named player of the series but you could have made a very strong argument for Jamal to have been awarded that title.”Jamal joins his compatriot Hasan Ali in Warwickshire’s squad, who was also left out of the ongoing New Zealand series after being invited to Pakistan’s recent training camp. They will fill Warwickshire’s two permitted overseas spots until the end of July, while Hasan’s contract includes an option to extend into September.Warwickshire will be without Moeen Ali, their T20 captain, for at least the first half of the Blast as he is expected to be named in England’s provisional T20 World Cup squad next week. The club said in January when Alex Davies was appointed club captain that a decision over the T20 captaincy would be made nearer the start of the Blast.They have strengthened their T20 bowling attack significantly in the off-season with the additions of George Garton and Richard Gleeson, though Gleeson could yet miss the start of the Blast. He was recently signed by Chennai Super Kings as an injury replacement at the IPL, and they are on course to qualify for the play-offs which run until May 26, five days before Warwickshire’s opening match.Sam Hain, who has missed the start of the Championship season due to personal reasons, played for Warwickshire’s 2nd XI but does not feature in their first-team squad this week. For Notts, Olly Stone – who left Warwickshire at the end of the 2022 season – is back in the squad after a groin injury and could play his first Championship game since May 2023.Elsewhere, Sam Cook will lead Essex for the first time this week when they face Durham, with club captain Tom Westley on paternity leave. They have brought in Harry Duke on a short-term loan deal from Yorkshire with Adam Rossington and Michael Pepper both injured and Jordan Cox unable to keep wicket after breaking his finger during the Hundred last year.Ollie Pope and Gus Atkinson are both in Surrey’s squad to face Hampshire at The Oval, though Ben Foakes has been rested by the ECB. In Division Two, Rehan Ahmed is back in Leicestershire’s squad after two weeks away on a pilgrimage, while Josh Hull – a tall left-arm seamer recently name-checked by Rob Key as an England prospect – returns from a side strain.

The Queensland captain will miss the game against Victoria with an eye on the Test summer which starts in December

AAP12-Oct-2023Usman Khawaja has been rested for Queensland’s next Sheffield Shield fixture as Cricket Australia’s workload management spreads to include batters ahead of the international summer.The Queensland captain is fit and healthy, but on Saturday he will watch his side’s clash with Victoria in Mackay from his home in Brisbane.Queensland still have four Shield games before the first Test of the summer against Pakistan, beginning in Perth on December 14.Related

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• Neser and Peirson centuries help Queensland hold out NSW

• Khawaja: Neser is Australia's Woakes

• Will Pucovski to miss Victoria's Shield clash with Queensland

Australia, currently competing in the ODI World Cup in India, will play a five-game T20 series against the hosts, before returning home for a five-Test summer.They will also play two Tests in New Zealand in February and March, and contest T20 series alongside those five-day clashes.AAP understands all Australian squad members will be subject to the load management policy – which had not been flagged before Khawaja’s omission on Thursday – on a case-by-case basis.How to best manage bowlers’ workloads has long been a divisive topic, with Australian captain Pat Cummins dismissing the notion of rotation in India and hopeful his battery of quicks will play every World Cup game if fit.The 36-year-old Khawaja has a relatively light schedule compared with some of his Test team-mates who frequent the world T20 circuit, but he will play for the Brisbane Heat in the BBL.His omission is a nod to how crowded the modern-day cricketer’s calendar has become.”Ideally you want your captain and best player to be there for every game, but we all know that, barring injury, he will be one of the first bats picked for the Pakistan series, so we understand the rationale behind the decision-making process,” Queensland coach Wade Seccombe said.”Uzzie is philosophical about it. He’d be happy to play, but he will also benefit from a more measured build-up ahead of another big international schedule for Australia.”He’s hitting them well, so we shouldn’t be too concerned on that front.”In-form wicketkeeper Jimmy Peirson will captain in Khawaja’s absence, while Gold Coast product Ben McDermott is poised for a Shield return after his off-season move from Tasmania.

County seeks influential figurehead in the wake of racism allegations

David Hopps20-Aug-2022Yorkshire are expected to sign Shan Masood, the Pakistan opening batter, after he confirmed that he had turned down Derbyshire’s offer of a new contract and would leave the club at the end of the season.Masood, who is regarded in Derbyshire circles as one of their most influential overseas signings, could also be offered the Yorkshire captaincy following Steven Patterson’s decision to step down as leader of the Championship side at the end of last month and the departure of England’s allrounder, David Willey, who was in charge of the T20 side, to Northamptonshire.Masood is seen as a perfect fit for Yorkshire as they seek to promote an all-inclusive culture in the wake of racism allegations from their former player, Azeem Rafiq, which sparked the biggest crisis in the club’s history and brought charges of bringing the game into disrepute from the ECB after a prolonged investigation.As a multi-format player, whose international days might be drawing to a close, Masood could also be expected to become an important figurehead in minority-ethnic communities as Yorkshire work to build trust across all parts of the county.His considered leadership was a prime factor in Derbyshire’s qualification for the Blast quarter-finals, as well as a more stable season in Division Two of the LV= Championship, but he was called up by Pakistan for a Test tour of Sri Lanka and Derbyshire crashed and burned in their last-eight Blast tie against Somerset at Taunton.Related

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Derbyshire had been in discussions with Masood, 32, regarding an extended contract for several months and despite a significantly improved offer, he has decided to take on potentially a hugely influential role.Derbyshire’s head of cricket, Mickey Arthur, was philosophical about Masood’s departure but nevertheless it is a blow for his efforts to change the county’s reputation as one of the weakest in the country.”Bringing Shan to Derbyshire was my priority when joining the club last winter,” Arthur said. “He’s shown the performances I knew he was capable of in county cricket and we’ve been keen to extend his deal since very early on in the season.”The contract renewal reflected his performances and value to the club, but ultimately we couldn’t match the offer. The other county set their stall out to bring in Shan and while it is of course disappointing to lose a player of his calibre, I and everyone at the club wish him the very best for the future.”We’ve seen a different Derbyshire this year and the group have surpassed people’s expectations. We’re shaking off that underdog tag and teams know when they play us that it’s going to be a competitive game. There’s more to come from this group and we’ll supplement that core with overseas recruitment, the process for which is already underway.”Masood offered optimistic words in return. “Derbyshire is a great club with a very positive outlook and inclusive culture. Under Mickey’s project I see the group challenging for trophies and reaching greater heights in the very near future. It has not been easy making this decision, but I feel this move is the next phase of my life and career.”He is on course to finish the season with more than 2,000 runs across all formats, including a double century against Sussex.Yorkshire explored the possibility earlier in the summer of signing Moeen Ali as another statement signing, although that prospect was always unlikely. Moeen said in June that he would be open to joining Yorkshire for cricketing reasons but “not as a publicity stunt” before making an expected switch from Worcestershire to his first county Warwickshire and his home city of Birmingham where his popularity is evident, not least in his leadership of Birmingham Phoenix in the Hundred.Yorkshire would welcome a similar impact from Masood as they try to reinvigorate a county where membership has fallen to historically low levels and debts remain around £20 million.

Rizwan’s half-century helped Multan canter to a six-wicket win despite a brief early stutter against a depleted United

Danyal Rasool20-Feb-2022There was very little riding on this game, and perhaps that shone through in the way it played out. Islamabad United, hobbling on as injuries continue to ravage them, limped to 105 in 20 overs, before an unbeaten 42-ball 51 from Mohammad Rizwan helped Multan Sultans canter to a six-wicket victory despite a brief early stutter. But for the unlikeliest of miracles United were assured progression to the last four, though the depleted state in which they eventually get there perhaps raises questions about their ability to be competitive.United, like Quetta Gladiators, who won earlier against Karachi Kings, finish with four wins in ten, but had the cushion of a vastly superior net run rate to sneak through to the eliminator. Making half a dozen changes – goodness knows how many enforced – they were no match for a ruthless Sultans bowling line-up, who bent them to their will all innings. Besides Liam Dawson and Muhammad Musa, no Islamabad batter managed better than a run-a-ball, with Asif Afridi, Imran Tahir, and even Tim David chipping in with wickets.Azam Khan in the middle order was United’s best hope of a big total, with superstars and power hitters in short supply elsewhere. But he ended up struggling most of all, put out of his misery by a ripper of a catch at deep midwicket by Shan Masood, who can’t seem to put a foot wrong in this competition. Skipper Asif Ali’s wretched PSL with the bat continued, with Masood once more taking the catch at deep midwicket to burrow into the lower order. Only a devil-may-care cameo from Musa, who finished unbeaten with 26 in 21, helped his side get to three figures, setting the Sultans 106 for victory.They needed to get there in an almost mathematically impossible 3.4 overs if United were to be eliminated at the Gladiators’ expense. Instead, they got a brief scare of their own when three early wickets by Dawson reduced them to 18 for three, and Tim David fell cheaply. But a situation like this is tailor-made for Mohammad Rizwan, who was happy to steer his side towards the target. In David Willey, he had a partner who understood the situation, and shelved his big shots for a sensible, game-appropriate knocking, finishing unbeaten with 28 off 32.It was a game that seemed to be dragging on interminably, and the Sultans stretched it out till the 18th over before finally putting United, and indeed the contest, out of its misery. There was still time for Rizwan to give his phenomenal career numbers another shot in the arm, getting to 50 with a glorious six over cover for the winnings runs. The Sultans now get ready for a likely blockbuster against the Sultans on Wednesday, with United left licking wounds both literal and metaphorical.