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Marshall Ayub could be making his Test debut as a No. 3 batsman against New Zealand, but he hasn’t had much of a chance to bat in match situation recently

Mohammad Isam in Chittagong04-Oct-2013Marshall Ayub is waiting patiently to grab his first opportunity in international cricket but the heavy downpour in Chittagong meant that his only chance of getting some practice before his likely Test debut appeared slim. Rather than having an innings under his belt, he has to content with thinking about is last century and plan his indoor nets using advice from the man who’s position he could be taking.That last century was his sixth since February 2012 and it came in a three-day practice match in Khulna played among Bangladesh’s 30-man preliminary squad for the New Zealand series in early September. It came from No. 3, a position for which Bangladesh are desperate to find a new batsman, and more importantly, it caught coach Shane Jurgensen’s eye.Habibul Bashar, Bangladesh’s best-ever No. 3 and coincidentally the selector present at the game, said at the time that it will be an innings to talk about when they select the first Test squad.”The 156 in Khulna got me back into reckoning [for the Bangladesh side],” Marshall told ESPNcricinfo. “I had an ordinary tour of England for Bangladesh A (in August this year). I thought I may have lost out on the progress I had made before this tour. I had scored some runs in the last domestic season but I just had to score in my first innings back from England.”He returned from England with 139 runs from eight one-day innings, with a highest score of 39 against Hampshire. It was a setback for Marshall, after he had scored 1,069 first-class runs with four centuries in the 2012-13 season. That welcome run of form came after a few average seasons Marshall had to endure on his return to first-class cricket following a career-threatening injury five years ago.From an underwhelming talented batsman who had three first-class centuries, he struck four more and increased his average from 26.8 to 36.9 in the space of 17 innings in the National Cricket League (for Dhaka Metropolis) and the Bangladesh Cricket League (for Central Zone).Mohammad Ashraful, his senior teammate in first-class cricket, told him to increase his endurance, which would translate to better concentration for longer innings. “It was a simple piece of advice from Ashraful . He told me to increase the intensity of my training sessions. I have to run more laps, for instance, so that my concentration increases.”I had to bat longer in the nets, so that I got used to playing longer innings. I had to do all of that in the field, but that advice really helped. Endurance, fitness and longevity in the field are all connected together,” Marshall said.As a quirk of fate, Marshall is now closest to taking Ashraful’s No. 3 slot after the former Bangladesh captain was provisionally suspended for alleged involvement in corruption during the BPL.Their batting styles could not be any more different as Marshall likes to take a more traditional approach to building an innings, coupled with his overall quiet and calm disposition. Jurgensen and the rest of the Bangladesh team management have been looking for a batsman with solidity in a line-up that is full of aggressive batsmen like Tamim Iqbal, Anamul Haque, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan and Nasir Hossain.Marshall could be their answer, but No. 3 has been a troubled position in the Bangladesh team since Bashar’s retirement. Drafting in a new guy in one of the most important places in the team is a major call, so Marshall has to be in control of his emotions, as he has always been through the most difficult of times.

Yuvraj Singh, who is expected to mark his return to international cricket during the first Twenty20 in Visakhapatnam, has said he is treating his comeback as a new beginning

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Sep-2012Yuvraj Singh, who is expected to mark his return to international cricket during the first Twenty20 in Visakhapatnam, has said he is treating his comeback as a new beginning. The match is expected to be attended by several of his friends and family members.Yuvraj overcame a rare germ cell cancer, diagnosed late last year, after undergoing chemotherapy in the USA and was named in the Twenty20 squad after being declared fit by doctors at the National Cricket Academy in Bangalore.”It is hard to believe that I will be playing for India again,” Yuvraj said. “A few months back I had trouble climbing four steps, now I can’t wait to take the field. It is like starting a new life.”Yuvraj has received a lot of media attention over recent months, with fans praying for his speedy recovery. It continued when he resumed training and not surprisingly, much of the attention in the lead-up to the first Twenty20 against New Zealand has centered on him. However, the captain MS Dhoni cautioned that the increased attention could be distracting to the player and the team, especially with the World Twenty20 coming up in Sri Lanka.”The whole world is talking about his comeback in a manner as if they are helping him out. In a way, it puts the burden on the individual,” Dhoni said. “It’s important to keep it as normal as possible, not to let him think what has really happened in his life.”He has fought through it as he is a strong character. As I said, he needs to turn up and just enjoy his cricket. That’s what he has done from age-group cricket till now. So he should not think about anything else.”Yuvraj’s return was welcomed by his fellow team-mates, some of whom last shared a dressing room with him back in November 2011, during the home Tests against West Indies.”Now this is what we call a comeback,” said Harbhajan Singh, who is also making a return after being dropped. “There can’t be a bigger inspiration in cricket than Yuvi. It is a privilege to be back in the dressing room with him.”Batsman Suresh Raina said his story was an inspiration. “Yuvi is such a great fighter. He has put in so much effort, and worked really hard at the NCA,” Raina said. “You will get to see this when he comes out on the field. He is a team man. We are pretty confident that he will do well.”

A government proposal that seeks to regulate the operations of the BCCI and other national sports bodies, and bring them under federal transparency and accountability laws, has created some controversy and prompted a sharp reaction from cricket’s administ

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Aug-2011A government proposal that seeks to regulate the operations of the BCCI and other national sports bodies, and bring them under federal transparency and accountability laws, has created some controversy and prompted a sharp reaction from cricket’s administrators. The National Sports (Development) Bill 2011 has been placed before the cabinet and is due to be discussed on Tuesday; if approved, it will be placed before Parliament and could be enacted within a few weeks.The bill seeks to reserve at least 25% of federation posts for former players, which means that ex-cricketers will get more play in the affairs of the BCCI; it puts a 70-year age bar for all administrators and limits appointments to only two consecutive terms; it will also mandate the positing of audited accounts of public-access websites. It also puts all federations within the ambit of the National Anti-Doping Agency (NADA) – the BCCI has long opposed measures, including those brought in by the ICC, to put its players under an anti-doping regime.Perhaps its most significant provision vis-a-vis the BCCI is the invoking of the Right to Information Act (RTI), a landmark law that allows members of the public to seek details of the working of federations under the legislation.The BCCI is registered under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, meant ideally for charitable, non-profit institutions. The advantages available to societies of this kind involve direct benefits involving purchase of government-owned land for cricket-related use at very reduced rates, while indirect benefits relate to excise duty and income tax exemptions. An appellate tribunal is now hearing the BCCI’s case against the Income Tax department’s demand that tax rules be strictly applied to them, as they are not a charitable, non-profit organisation.The cricket board has traditionally been outside the government’s purview and, unlike other national sports federations, has not received state funding. However, it has received tax breaks while staging events, including the recent ICC World Cup. While the BCCI already complies with some parts of the bill’s provisions, including holding regular elections and limiting terms for its office-bearers, it keeps much of its operations out of the public eye. Its accounts are not disclosed, nor are details of its financial dealings – issues that became controversial following the IPL fiasco in 2010.”Only organizations taking a grant from the government can come under the RTI, and the BCCI doesn`t [receive government grants],” board spokesperson Rajeev Shukla was quoted as saying on .The move has put cricket’s administrators, many of whom are senior politicians, in an awkward position. Shukla is a junior government minister while Sharad Pawar, the ICC president and still a powerful figure in Indian cricket, is a member of the cabinet that will discuss the bill. Opposition leader Arun Jaitley is president of the Delhi and Districts Cricket association and seen as a future BCCI president and his party colleague and fellow MP Anurag Thakur heads the Himachal Pradesh Cricket association, whose ground in Dharamshala has hosted IPL games.Some former players have, however, backed the bill. “If the government formulates a rule, the BCCI should follow the framework of the guidelines … I believe the BCCI can work independently but must always toe the government line,” Kapil Dev said.”It is good for sports bodies and their professional running,” another former India captain, Mohammad Azharuddin, said. “It (law) should be for all sports federations and there should be no exception.” Azharuddin is an MP with the ruling Congress party.Sports administration in India has been at the centre of several controversies over the past couple of years. The shambles surrounding the 2010 Commonwealth Games made headlines the world over and eventually resulted in its main organiser being arrested and imprisoned pending trial. The IPL, following last year’s dramatic exit of its chairman Lalit Modi, has been the focus of several investigations by federal agencies on charges of financial irregularities. On Tuesday the country’s finance minister told Parliament the government was probing complaints of irregularities in the IPL and and “criminal activities” by some of the franchises.

Plays of the Day from the first day of the third Test between England and Pakistan at The Oval

Andrew Miller at The Oval18-Aug-2010Debutant of the day
Wahab you been all this time? Wahab Riaz’s last competitive outing came against Leicestershire a month ago, and with just five ODIs and a solitary Twenty20 in his international career to date, he was something of an unknown quantity coming into this game – especially having picked up a meagre 14 wickets at 41.50 for National Bank in the recent Quaid-e-Azam Trophy. But no matter what the state of their overall team may be, Pakistan have never been short of fast-bowling reserves, and Wahab tore onto the offensive with four wickets in his first nine overs as a Test cricketer, and 5 for 63 all told. One cautionary footnote, however. He is the ninth Pakistani to claim five wickets on debut, but with the exception of Shahid Afridi, who was primarily selected as a batsman, none of them went on to achieve greater deeds.Failure of the day
There were plenty of failures to choose from, but few were as abject as that of Alastair Cook. With 100 runs in seven innings to date this summer, he was retained for this contest as much out of pity as anything else – with England breaking the habit of a lifetime by naming their 11 a full three days in advance of the Test to give him as much reassurance as possible. A carefree 38 from 22 balls in Essex’s t20 semi-final hinted at a reinvigorated mindset, but from the moment he edged his first runs of today through gully for four, it was clear that all was not well in his game. Sure enough, he failed to see out Mohammad Asif’s first over of the day, as Kamran Akmal snaffled the first of four catches behind the stumps.Revival of the day
Aside from the lunchtime scoreline, the most remarkable aspect of Pakistan’s performance was the sharpness of their fielding, which (with one notable exception – see below) could not have been further removed from their woeful effort at Edgbaston last week. And no-one better epitomised that improvement than the keeper, Kamran, who showed Cook a thing or two about the benefits of a break from the firing line. Had it not been for Zulqarnain Haider’s finger injury, he would not have been playing in this match either, but instead he fronted up with a display that matched the assurance he showed during Pakistan’s victory over Australia at Headingley. His day started inauspiciously, with two byes fizzing through his legs from the third ball bowled, but that was as bad as his day would get.Stand of the day
Matt Prior and Stuart Broad are a pair of players who fancy a scrap, but to be brought together at 94 for 7 in the 32nd over was a brawl beyond even their pugilistic appetites. Nevertheless, the severity of the situation focussed their minds superbly, as they doubled the score and more in a calculated and stroke-laden 119-run onslaught. In so doing they surpassed England’s previous eighth-wicket record in Tests against Pakistan, which stood at a meagre 99, and in keeping with the current Ashes hype, also nudged ahead of a trio of notable landmarks against Australia – the 117 that Botham and Dilley added in the great Headingley turnaround of 1981; the urn-sealing 109 that Pietersen and Ashley Giles compiled on this ground five years ago; and the 108 that Broad and Graeme Swann compiled out of the wreckage of last summer’s rout in Leeds. Omens aplenty …Shy of the day
When Stuart Broad hurled the ball at Zulqarnain during the Edgbaston Test, his actions attracted widespread condemnation and accusations of petulance. When Asif did the same to Prior, striking him painfully on the heel towards the end of his excellent 84 not out, it drew a sharp intake of breath from around the ground, followed by a cacophony of pantomime boos, but that was more or less the end of that. It helped that Asif’s gesture of apology was rather more fulsome than Broad’s casual shrug had been, and the shy itself was also rather more justified, seeing as Prior had advanced down the track and was stretching for his crease as the bowler fielded in his followthrough.Drop of the day
At the age of 35, and with hardly a hint of competitive cricket since the tour of Australia back in January, Mohammad Yousuf comes across as an unlikely saviour with his grey-flecked beard and slightly portly demeanour. And while all that may well change when he picks up his bat tomorrow, for the time being, the most notable moment of his comeback Test came from the penultimate ball of England’s innings, when a spiralling top-edge from Prior left him looking as doddery as Cha-Cha Pakistan in a tape-ball knockabout. Prior was already walking off when the chance plopped straight through Yousuf’s fingers. Fortunately for Pakistan, Steven Finn was nailed lbw one delivery later, having survived 64 balls without dismissal in the series.

Babar Azam has been rested keeping in mind Pakistan’s busy schedule, Mahmood says

Danyal Rasool14-Oct-2024In desperate need of a result following an innings defeat in the first Test, Pakistan have seemingly had a complete change of heart on the sort of pitches they want at home, and opted to use the same one from the first Test. To that end, they have lined up with three spinners, with seam-bowling allrounder Aamer Jamal the only pace outlet.According to assistant coach Azhar Mahmood, though, this is precisely how Pakistan had planned it all along.”We had a clear plan of what pitches to prepare for Bangladesh, and what to prepare vs England,” he said on Tuesday. “Our approach was pace wickets against Bangladesh and spin pitches against England. Our instruction to the curator for the first Test was that the ball should spin after the second day. But the pitch didn’t take turn until even the fifth day. Hopefully the ball will begin to take turn on the ninth day.”Related

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If the expectation was that the pitch would take turn from the second day in the first Test, Pakistan’s line-up did not necessarily reflect that. Legspinner Abrar Ahmed was the only specialist spinner in the XI, with Pakistan lining up with Naseem Shah, Shaheen Afridi and Jamal to round the attack out. Now, unless one of the part-timers are thrown the ball, it will be the first time Pakistan play a men’s Test with only one quick bowler.It wasn’t an attack that left the Test with its reputation enhanced. England piled out 823 for 7, the highest score Pakistan have ever conceded. Captain Shan Masood was critical of the bowlers, and the focus has shifted to finding a way to take 20 wickets by any means necessary.”You have to take 20 wickets,” Mahmood said. “We thought about how we’re going to take those. We thought that if we use that pitch, the thinking was how do we take 20 wickets against England and we thought spin was the way to do it.”The players who are coming in are experienced. They are all experienced and have been playing first-class cricket for a while. The best option is to play players at home on pitches they are used to, so I don’t think there’ll be that much pressure on that.”While each of the incoming spinners – Zahid Mahmood, Noman Ali and Sajid Khan – have accumulated plenty of first-class experience over the years, none of it has been particularly recent. The Quaid-e-Azam Trophy season hasn’t started yet, meaning these players’ last red-ball involvement was in the previous season – none of them have played a first-class match since January this year. Thrown in against an England side that broke a multitude of records on this very pitch last week, it is not a particularly gentle easing in.Mahmood also attempted to downplay all the changes from the first Test, particularly the leaving out of Babar Azam, which he insisted was “rest” rather than “drop”.”Babar is our No. 1 player in terms if technique and ability,” he said. “Pakistan has so much cricket coming that the selection committee decided to give Babar a rest, because Pakistan have to go to Australia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.Jason Gillespie and Azhar Mahmood hatch their plans•Getty Images

“We need to take advantage of our conditions. We announced the team for one Test match because we knew we would have changes. After this we’re flying to Australia to play white-ball cricket. We knew we’d have to rest Shaheen and other important players because we have non-stop cricket for the next six months.”There may be some scepticism towards Mahmood’s reasoning. None of the upcoming white-ball tours are as significant for Pakistan as a three-match home Test series against England. This is arguably the biggest series for Pakistan in this current season, and there will invariably be questions about why the upcoming white-ball series couldn’t serve as a more appropriate avenue for rotation.Fielding three spinners in addition to Salman Agha, who Mahmood said in August was a “specialist spinner”, requires a certain degree of confidence that the pitch will take turn. “We left a lot of grass on the pitches and wanted the ball to turn to use the pitch in our favour. Let’s see if it works for us.”

Head is just nine points behind the out-of-action Kane Williamson, and could become the new No. 1 by the end of the fourth Ashes Test

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jul-2023Travis Head has kept up his consistent rise in the ICC Test batters’ rankings, getting to a career best No. 2 at the end of the Headingley Test against England, just nine points behind Kane Williamson.England’s batting stars in that Test, which they won by three wickets, were Ben Stokes and Harry Brook, and they moved up five places to 18th and one place to 12th respectively.With Williamson not having played Test cricket since March because of a right knee injury, Head has a chance of getting to the No. 1 spot by the end of the fourth Ashes Test, to be played at Old Trafford from July 19. He has already scored 266 runs in three Ashes Tests so far, 116 of them coming in the last one.

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While Head sparkled, Steven Smith, Marnus Labuschagne and Joe Root had below-par outings at Headingley, and that meant a drop in the rankings for them. All of them moved down one spot – Smith to fourth, Labuschagne to fifth, and Root to sixth – and made room for Babar Azam to get to No. 3.The Headingley Test wasn’t a high-scoring one, and that was down to some special bowling performances, especially from Mark Wood. Playing his first Test since December 2022, Wood picked up 5 for 34 and 2 for 66, winning the Player-of-the-Match award in the process, and rose nine spots to No. 26th. His colleague Stuart Broad put in a good show too, picking up five wickets. That took him up four places to sixth.For the Australians, Pat Cummins returned 6 for 91 in the first innings, while Mitchell Starc had 2 for 59 and 5 for 78. Cummins stayed at No. 2, not far behind the top-ranked R Ashwin, while Starc went up three positions to 11th.

But fast bowler believes England fightback leaves team in ‘box seat’

Vithushan Ehantharajah25-Jun-2022After falling agonisingly short of a Test century on debut, then returning with a fiery spell in the final session, Jamie Overton was refreshingly philosophical at the end of day three of the third Test at Headingley.Both efforts contributed to England’s cause, ensuring a first innings of 360 for a lead of 31, before cutting New Zealand down to 168 for five late on. The tourists led by 137 at stumps, with in-form batters Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell at the crease.After an initial spell of five overs for 17, Overton came out after tea and immediately took the wicket of Tom Latham, who had looked back in form in reaching 76 before succumbing to a misjudgement outside off stump from round the wicket. Overton then hit Devon Conway in the head with the very next ball, setting the tone for what was a engaging four-wicket session for England.However the pain earlier of falling for 97 earlier in the day was the main point of conversation when it came to Overton’s work on Saturday. He was crestfallen after nervously waving at a wide delivery from Trent Boult which nestled into the hands of Mitchell at first slip. By stumps, however, he had just about made his peace with the three runs he did not get.”Obviously I was very disappointed getting out on 97,” he said. “But me and Jonny put us in a great position [a partnership of 241 – a new record for the seventh wicket]. And that knock from Broady (42) coming in and getting us into a lead has put us in a great place going into the second innings. It was obviously disappointing but I feel I’ve contributed to the team more than enough.”Understandably, Overton did not get the best night’s sleep on Friday, having come in on 89 not out, and that reflected in a quiet start the following morning, in which he only managed eight runs in the 40 minutes before his dismissal.”I was tossing and turning for quite a lot,” he admitted. “I’m always going to be a little bit nervous but I felt like I was in sort of in a great place this morning and just didn’t quite get over the line. The ball was there to hit and I just hit it to the wrong place.”Related

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Bairstow, who was eventually dismissed for 162, accompanied Overton for a portion of his slow walk-off, putting his arm around him and offering some consoling words: “He just said, soak it all up, you played a great knock.”Overton was good by those words come the evening. England’s middle session lacked a little something, allowing New Zealand to move into a strong position of 125 for one at tea, and a lead of 94. With the help of the crowd, they responded with far more urgency and endeavour to take four for 43 in the 18.5 overs they were able to get in before the rain.”We chatted at tea that potentially the afternoon session wasn’t that great for us,” Overton said. “We obviously didn’t go for loads of runs but we didn’t feel like we bowled and fielded the way we wanted to, so coming out after tea it was just trying to enjoy ourselves, put the New Zealand guys under pressure, and that’s what we did. The crowd obviously got involved a little bit and we tried to gee them up because that always helps us as well.”There is still work to be done, especially given how Mitchell and Blundell have performed – in this match alone, never mind the series, with 109 and 55 in the first innings, respectively. Overton, though, feels England are ahead.”I think that last session put us right in the box seat. We would like to go back out there at the end but couldn’t quite get out there with the with the covers needing time to get them off.”But yeah, we’re in a great position going into tomorrow and hopefully we can get the two early wickets, the two key wickets. But we feel like we’re in a good place. And if we can get those two early, then we’re in a great place to win the game.”

Says India’s win in Australia “changes nothing”; gives “complete credit” to his team-mates for the result

PTI26-Jan-2021Ajinkya Rahane won many fans with his astute captaincy during India’s triumph in Australia but he has made it clear that the leader of the side remains Virat Kohli, for whom he is happy “filling in” when required.Come February 5, Rahane will once again be India’s Test vice-captain, against England, with Kohli back in charge. Will things be different now, though? “Nothing changes. Virat was and will always be the captain of the Test team and I am his deputy. When he was absent, it was my duty to lead the side and my responsibility to give my best for Team India’s success,” Rahane told PTI, while on his way to Chennai for the England series.Related

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Rahane said his relationship with Kohli has always been smooth. “Me and Virat have always shared a good bonding with each other. He has, time and again, praised my batting. Both of us played memorable knocks for our team in India and overseas conditions. It only helped that Virat comes at No. 4 and myself at No. 5 – we have had a lot of partnerships.”We have always backed each other’s game. When we are at the crease, we discuss threadbare about opposition’s bowling. We caution each other whenever one of us plays a rash shot.”And how does he find Kohli as a captain? “Virat is a sharp captain. He takes good on-field decisions. Whenever the spinners are in operation, he is banking on me and he believes that taking those catches at slips off [R] Ashwin and [Ravindra] Jadeja is one of my core competence areas.”Virat expects a lot from me and I try and ensure I do not let him down,” Rahane, who is 13 short of a milestone of 100 catches in Tests, said.People may have spotted a “leader” in Rahane down under, but he downplayed his role in the victory. “With regards to leadership, I can only say that it varies from person to person. A captain is as good as his team. When you win a match or a series, it’s always a collective effort and not because of singular man’s contribution.”It’s your team-mates who make you a good leader. The complete credit of this series win belongs to my team.”Rahane’s classy hundred in the Melbourne Test, according to India’s head coach Ravi Shastri, was a catalyst for change. Having been through rough patches with the bat in recent past, does Rahane feel more secure about his place in the Test side after that innings?”Honestly speaking, I never ever felt that my place in the side was ever in danger. The captain and team management always had faith in me,” Rahane said. “Yes, sometimes in few series, a player is off-colour but that doesn’t mean that his class is gone. A player needs only one knock to get back to his form.”When I was going through a bad patch, my captain boosted my morale. It’s always comforting to know that you have his backing and you are then focused on giving your best without any worries.”

Tom Abell’s maiden T20 hundred comes in a losing cause as Middlesex overhaul 227 target thanks to Eoin Morgan 83*

David Hopps30-Aug-2019It is turning into an extraordinary summer for Eoin Morgan. A World Cup-winning captain, he followed up at Taunton with the most extraordinary Blast innings of the season as Middlesex confounded expectations by pulling off a record T20 chase with breathtaking simplicity.No county had ever hauled in a score as large as Somerset’s 226 for 5 but Middlesex did it with six wickets and three overs to spare with Morgan’s coup de grace a startling unbeaten 83 from 29 balls that was such a simple display of uninhibited hitting it almost defied description. Thirteen of the 29 balls he faced went to boundaries.You’re a long time retired and even allowing for the natural adrenalin slump in the weeks after a World Cup triumph, the thought that Morgan might retire at 32 and not lead England in the World T20 in Australia in late 2020 is hard to countenance.”Does an innings like that make playing on more appealing?” he was asked on Sky Sports. “It probably does,” he said, before adding: “It’s a big decision. I don’t want to let anybody down. I want to take time to make my decision.”ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Somerset’s bowlers cracked under the pressure in a must-win match. As much as Morgan, and others, took advantage of Taunton’s short boundaries, and the flattest hybrid pitch yet seen in English cricket, Middlesex will rarely receive so many please-hit-me deliveries. The omission of Craig Overton, even allowing for his modest season, looked costly.For Somerset’s captain Tom Abell, a maiden T20 century should have been cause for unbridled satisfaction. Instead, there was only heartache. The first thing you spot about Abell in Twenty20 cricket is the desire. He appears to crave victory because it is the right and proper thing to do.A year ago, he struggled horribly, using up 18 balls for an unbeaten 21 as Somerset threw away a chance to chase 232 against Kent at Canterbury and so reach the last eight. This time, every shot he played had Middlesex’s international top five at the back of his mind, but once again Somerset fell short.”At the halfway stage we were a little bit frustrated with the way we had bowled,” Middlesex’s captain Dawid Malan said. “But you only have to get the ball in the air to get six here and if you beat the field it is four.”Malan contributed to an electrifying start. By the time Malan and Paul Striling fell in successive balls from Tim Groenewald, Middlesex were 67 for 2 after four overs.Middlesex’s Powerplay score was their highest ever – 94 for 2 – before Mohammad Hafeez fell to a cute run out at the bowler’s end by Roelof van der Merwe, who fielded a return drive off his own bowling from AB de Villiers in conventional fashion and then rolled the ball through his legs to hit the stumps.Max Waller appeared so overawed by the challenge of bowling legspin to de Villiers on this sort of surface that the South African greeted one mishit six against a long hop with a roll of the eyes. But when de Villiers refocused it was to find Waller pulling off a brilliant right-handed catch above his head at straight midwicket to dismiss him for 32.With 87 needed off eight, Morgan’s eyes narrowed. He took a view on the left-arm seam of Tom Lammonby, taking 23 off the over, the second of three sixes somewhat fortunate as Babar Azam, who had just returned to the field, staggered back stiffly into the rope at long-on. By the end, Morgan had eight sixes, each one more predictable than the last.Tom Abell celebrates his maiden century•Getty Images

There is much talk of Somerset’s bank of young talent, but Abell will have to supervise a difficult transition. Peter Trego has been released and, who knows James Hildreth may not have too many seasons left as far as Twenty20 is concerned, his latest struggle, 18 from 12 balls, having the careworn mood of a senior pro not quite sure of his touch. And, as for Tom Banton, who knows where his future will lie?Babar and Banton have been the source of Somerset’s inspiration – the two leading scorers in the Blast. Babar departed first ball to Toby Roland-Jones but Banton, the darling of the TV cameras in limited-overs cricket all summer, upped the adoration level with 62 from 39 balls.Banton was badly dropped on the shot that took him to his fourth half-century of the tournament, a top-edged pull against Steven Finn which Tom Helm made a mess off, his mouth open like a basking lizard: it was a stressful night all round but it was not the best way for him to regulate his body temperature.It was upon Banton’s dismissal that Somerset’s innings found momentum as Abell and Ed Byrom put on 95 in 43 balls.Abell has been overshadowed by the openers all summer, stout-heartedly developing his own support act. He should have been run out on 4 when Nathan Sowter fumbled a throw from the cover boundary at the bowler’s end, but from that point played the field – in the nicest possible way. Give him a gap in the field and he maneuvered the ball there. This time, his tricky ramp shot which has served him well throughout the tournament was rarely seen as he discovered a more powerful game. “Twenty20 hasn’t really been my thing,” he said.It felt as if Abell’s century might not quite be achieved, but after the dismissal of Lewis Gregory for a first-ball duck (Gregory was not fit to bowl), he found himself on strike on 90 with four balls remaining.Once again his game management came into play. Roland-Jones, Middlesex’s most economical bowler, was twice worked through square leg for boundaries and he scrubbed out a hard-run two for his hundred. Somerset had 133 from the last 10. It felt good, it felt last-eight, but it was nothing of the sort.

The England management are keeping an open mind as to Stokes’ availability, should his court case in Bristol be adjourned

George Dobell01-Aug-2018England have not given up hope that Ben Stokes could be available for the second Test starting at Lord’s on August 9.Stokes is due in court in Bristol on August 6 – the day after the Edgbaston Test is scheduled to finish – to face a charge of affray with the case scheduled to last somewhere between five and seven days.But the England management are keeping an open mind as to Stokes’ availability, should the case be adjourned for any reason. If that were to happen on the first or second day of the trial, the England camp have confirmed to ESPNcricinfo they would consider his involvement in the Test at Lord’s.Replacing Stokes, as England found during the Ashes, is desperately difficult. While the England management are expecting a drier surface at Lord’s that could well see Moeen Ali drafted back into the side as a second spinner, they would prefer him to play alongside Stokes, rather than instead of him.A case can be adjourned for many reasons including illness, the admission of new evidence or a change in the charge. While it remains likely the case will go ahead as originally envisaged – certainly the Stokes camp has no plans to call for an adjournment – the England camp are keen to find a way to accommodate Stokes if he becomes available.