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The left-arm quick first played for them in 2023 and then helped them to the Division Two title in 2024

ESPNcricinfo staff11-Oct-2024Jaydev Unadkat will continue his association with Sussex after extending his contract with them for the 2025 and 2026 County Championship seasons. He will be available for the final run-in in both seasons.”When I came to Hove last year, I wasn’t sure what was on offer in the County Championship and how would I adapt to it. But after a few games now, I can definitely say Hove is my home away from home and Good Old Sussex by The Sea has my heart,” Unadkat was quoted as saying in a release by the team.”Everyone at Hove is very pleased and excited that Jaydev [Unadkat] has signed a two-year extension and will be returning to the Club for the next two seasons,” Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said.”Jaydev’s quality on the pitch has been so evident for everyone else to see, but just as importantly his qualities as a person make him one of the most popular and nicest guys any team could wish for.”Unadkat first signed for Sussex in 2023, and took 11 wickets in three matches. He returned to the team in 2024 and took 22 wickets at an average of 14.40 in five games, helping Sussex win the Division Two title.Unadkat is currently leading Saurashtra in the Ranji Trophy, which got underway on Friday.

After the Qalandars suffered their sixth defeat in six matches this season, McCullum suggested that a leadership change might be the best way forward

Umar Farooq09-Mar-2018Brendon McCullum, the Lahore Qalandars captain, has question the execution of his bowlers, and has offered to “offload” his captaincy in a bid to change the fortunes of the side, which has lost all six of its games this season. Effectively, Thursday night’s six-wicket defeat to Islamabad United was Lahore’s eighth straight loss going back to the end of last season. One of the most popular sides in the PSL is set to finish last for the third consecutive season.Lahore have played six different starting XIs this season, with their changes having no effect on their results. The biggest chance they have had was against Islamabad, when they had 163 – their biggest total so far – to defend but ended up losing with 14 balls to spare. With four games remaining Lahore aren’t mathematically out of contention for a spot in the playoffs but their chances are bleak.”Ultimately as captain you’re responsible for the performances. I feel like I’ve done the same things that I do in any team that I’ve led, but unfortunately that hasn’t resonated,” McCullum said. “So that’s the question we’ve got to ask tonight as well – whether it’s better offloading it to someone else and seeing if we can get better results. Doesn’t matter if you’re saying the right things, but if they’re not hitting home or the instructions aren’t being followed, then you’re always going to be pushing it uphill.”Lahore’s batting pattern has been similar throughout, with the openers making solid starts, the middle order collapsing, and the bowlers looking flat. They dropped Umar Akmal, one of their platinum picks, after five successive failures, allowing Anton Devcich to make his PSL debut. He smacked 62 off 42 balls to set up a fighting total. But Islamabad chased it down easily with the help of a 41-ball 77 from Luke Ronchi and Shadab Khan’s 32 off 24. When asked if Lahore’s total was 20 runs short, McCullum shot down the idea, ruing his bowlers’ performance instead.”No, not really. We bowled very poorly,” he said. “I thought it was a very, very good batting performance, set up by Anton Devcich in his first game, and [he] showed how hungry, competitive people are able to prosper. What we did after that, I was really disappointed with, to be honest. It’s not what we’re about and I don’t mind losing, but you expect to be hard to beat. We’ve got some questions to ask tonight and that’s all the way through.”He was particularly unimpressed with the lines they bowled to Ronchi, which he said had deviated from the tactics they had discussed before the match.”You can sit in bowling meetings all you want. You spend an hour today talking about bowling away from Luke Ronchi and then you proceed to run in and bowl at him every single ball, so there’s a disconnect there,” he said. “I don’t know what that is. It’s very hard on the support staff to prepare a team if guys aren’t prepared to listen, but if that’s the case, then we’re going to have to keep making changes, because there are young, enthusiastic guys in our team, which may be an opportunity, especially now since we’re out of the competition.”

Superb spin exhibition by Sophie Ecclestone had threatened to derail Storm innings

ECB Reporters Network27-Apr-2024Western Storm clinched their first win in the Rachael Heyhoe Flint Trophy after defeating Thunder by 66 runs at Emirates Old Trafford.An unbeaten 76 by Sophie Luff capped an excellent fightback by Western Storm who made 252 for 6 from their 50 overs after a superb exhibition of spin bowling by Sophie Ecclestone had threatened to derail their innings.England spinner Ecclestone took 3 wickets for 16 runs off her 10 overs, but three good partnerships rescued the Storm who added 162 runs from their final 30 overs to post a challenging score.That proved to be enough as Thunder subsided to 186 all out off 42.4 overs with Sophia Smale and Chloe Skelton taking three wickets apiece.Related

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Western Storm struck an early blow as the Thunder set off in pursuit of 253 when Seren Smale cut a short delivery from Lauren Filer to Dani Gibson at cover for 9.Emma Lamb and Katie Mack rebuilt with a positive 62-run partnership off 69 balls with Mack launching Amanda-Jade Wellington for consecutive sixes at the start of the leg spinner’s second over.Wellington hit back with two big wickets, bowling Mack for 28 and Lamb for 38 to have Thunder 85 for 3 at the start of the 19th over. That quickly became 104 for 6 after 25 overs as three wickets fell for six runs in a disastrous spell for Thunder.Off-spinner Skelton had Fi Morris caught behind for 16, then bowled Naomi Dattani first ball followed by Alex Griffiths finding an edge from Ecclestone that was well taken by wicketkeeper Nat Wraith standing up.Skipper Ellie Threlkeld and Kate Cross rallied Thunder with a partnership of 69 off 83 balls. Cross hit a six off Skelton in making a patient 36 until bowled by left-arm spinner Smale. Threlkeld departed for 32 when lbw sweeping at Skelton two balls later to leave the hosts 173 for 8 in the 40th over.Smale wrapped things up with the wickets of Mahika Gaur and Phoebe Graham for 10 to seal a convincing victory.Storm made an excellent start after being put in to bat with Griffiths and Smale posting a second consecutive fifty opening partnership in the face of some disciplined bowling by England duo Cross and Gaur.Griffiths had accelerated the scoring but was bowled for 24 after aiming a wild slog at Ecclestone. That was the first of three wickets to fall for nine runs in 17 balls with Smale, who had been fortunate to survive a run out chance when on 4, bowled for 23 by Ecclestone after playing back and beaten by a turning delivery, while Fran Wilson chipped Graham to Dattani at mid-on for 7.Gibson hit three boundaries off her first seven deliveries but had no answer to a quicker, turning delivery from Ecclestone to be bowled for 16 with the fourth wicket falling on 80 at the end of the 19th over.Storm fought back splendidly from that point, with captain Luff and Wraith mounting a determined alliance of 70 across 17 overs to counter the control exerted by the Thunder spinners with Ecclestone to the fore.Wraith hit the first six of the match off Hannah Jones before falling to a great catch by Ecclestone at mid-on off Graham for 38.But Luff found great support from Niamh Holland, who contributed a useful 22 off 24 balls in a 46-run partnership, and Wellington who made a rapid unbeaten 31 off 19 balls over the closing overs.Luff, who reached her fifty from 82 balls, became the glue that held the innings together, initially consolidating after coming to the crease in the 15th over before providing the late acceleration as Storm added 83 from the last ten overs to set a target that proved to be more than enough.

LSG head coach Langer felt dropped catches “really killed us in the end”

Abhimanyu Bose18-May-20244:26

Langer: IPL has same pressure as World Cup

Lucknow Super Giants’ win over Mumbai Indians in their last game of the season was not enough to take them to the playoffs, but it was the kind of performance their captain KL Rahul wanted more of throughout the season.LSG finished on 14 points and occupied sixth spot on table – level with fourth-placed Chennai Super Kings, who still have a game to play on Saturday – but their net run rate of -0.667 was not enough to push them into the top four.”At the beginning of the season, I really felt that we had a strong team and had most bases covered,” Rahul said after the game. “[We had] a couple of injuries obviously, which happens every season to every team, but those injuries and the guys that went away really dented us a little bit, and we didn’t play well enough collectively.Related

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“When the bowlers had a good game, the batters wouldn’t have a good game. We just didn’t come together as much as we would have wanted to.”Rahul’s comments were echoed by LSG head coach Justin Langer, who said they wanted to try a few new tricks in their last game, and that included opening with Devdutt Padikkal in place of Quinton de Kock. But the Padikkal move did not pay off – he was trapped lbw for a golden duck by Nuwan Thushara – and LSG soon found themselves in a familiar position of losing early wickets.They were 69 for 3 in the tenth over but Nicholas Pooran’s whirlwind 29-ball 75 revivied them. It also helped Rahul accelerate from 29 off 28 to finish on 55 off 41 and took the side to 214.LSG had come into the season with a reputation for defending totals, and they lived up to it the first three times they batted first. However, their bowling took a hit in the second half of the competition, with injuries to key bowlers like Mohsin Khan and Mayank Yadav, and they struggled to defend totals.But in Mumbai, even after the hosts enjoyed an 88-run opening stand in 8.4 overs, their bowling unit came together to effectively blunt the opposition by the 15th over. Naman Dhir, batting at No. 7, gave them a scare with a 28-ball 62 not out, but LSG got through.Langer acknowledged that they missed the services of Mayank and Mohsin, but felt that their sloppy fielding “really killed us in the end”.”I think dropped catches cost us,” Langer said at the post-game press conference. “If you go back to the Delhi game at home, we dropped [Jake] Fraser-McGurk on 17 [24] off Marcus Stoinis. And I think he hit 26 [21] runs off the next over and it really kickstarted his whole season. I saw a stat today that we’ve dropped a lot of catches. We’ve probably got the best fielding coach in the world [Jonty Rhodes] and we dropped some catches. And often it’s [something] as simple as that to [decide] the outcome of the season.”We missed Mayank, he was huge. Mohsin [Khan] had quite a sore back for some of the tournament. But I think dropped catches is the thing that really killed us in the end.”But against MI, LSG held on to all their chances – five catches taken on the field. Krunal Pandya and Ravi Bishnoi took a brilliant catch each to send Dewald Brevis and Suryakumar Yadav, respectively, packing.”Today was a really good performance,” Rahul said. “This is the kind of game we wanted to play more where batters are scoring, and bowlers are doing their job. Unfortunately, we didn’t do that, so we find ourselves here.”

Pakistan team director believes Shan Masood captained well overall and blamed his side’s fielding for their 0-3 series defeat

Danyal Rasool06-Jan-2024Shan Masood’s communication skills have garnered plenty of praise throughout his career, but this afternoon in Sydney, it seemed no one could quite understand him.After Australia were set 130 to win the final Test, Pakistan didn’t turn to the series’ joint-leading wicket-taker Aamer Jamal all morning. It was only after lunch that, with Australia needing 33 to win with nine wickets in hand and all jeopardy squeezed out of the game that Masood tossed him the ball in the 20th over.It was a decision team director Mohammad Hafeez appeared to slightly distance himself from, saying he believed Jamal should have bowled earlier. However, he also stressed Pakistan understood the importance of bowling offspin on a wicket that was beginning to take plenty of turn, and backed Masood to take on-field calls. Offspinner Sajid Khan opened the bowling and took a wicket in his first over, as well as another one shortly before Australia wrapped up an eight-wicket win.Related

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“It’s up to the captain,” Hafeez said after the game, talking about the bowling plans. “All bowlers were available but it’s the captain’s tactic. We wanted to bowl more from the offspinner because this track can offer a lot from the far end but the rest is up to [Masood]. Tactically, I think Jamal should have bowled earlier, but inside the field, the captain is the best judge so you have to back that up.”In truth, the decision to overlook Jamal will go down as a curious detail in a match where Pakistan’s advantage had been squandered in other areas and phases of the game, most notably a madcap final hour on the third day when they lost five wickets for nine runs to slump from 58 for 2 to 67 for 7. Pakistan frequently found themselves on the wrong end of those sorts of frenetic passages with huge swings of momentum, especially in the last two Tests.In Melbourne, Pakistan found themselves at 124 for one in response to Australia’s first innings score of 318, but lost the next five wickets for 46 runs. In the second innings, the visitors reduced Australia to 16 for 4 in the second innings, before dropping a vital Mitchell Marsh catch early only for him to take the target out of sight. The following day, Pakistan were 98 runs away from chasing down the total with half the side intact but lost 5 wickets for 18 runs to slip to a painful defeat.Sajid Khan did take two wickets but it wasn’t enough•Getty Images and Cricket Australia

In this Test, Pakistan had the momentum after skittling Australia’s final five for just 10 runs that gave them a slender first-innings lead, only for a Josh Hazlewood-inspired bowling attack to wrest back those losses.”We learned hard lessons,” Hafeez said. “As a team, we had our moments but we couldn’t grab those. We perhaps didn’t [deserve] 3-0, as a team I think we did some really good things this series, but we couldn’t win the crucial moments of the game and that’s the reason for the 3-0. We lost the series, but watching the talent of the players is what made me say we could compete right from the start. We’ve seen some glimpses of it. There were certain moments in these games that we should have grabbed because they can make a difference, especially in Melbourne when they were 16 for 4. It could have been a situation where we needed to chase just 140-150 but it ended up above 300.”Even here, we dropped some catches. Mitchell Marsh was dropped by Saim Ayub. We didn’t drop catches, we dropped the winning moments of the game. That is the negative side of our team: our fielding. We need to really work hard on this. The coaches worked really hard on it but when the players went inside they couldn’t respond accordingly. This is the one area I believe we need to work on.”It was hard to miss the cosy congeniality that formed a recurring theme in this series. Both sides’ players have spoken about the relationships that were built when Australia went to Pakistan in early 2022 to play series in all three formats, and over the last month, those relationships have sustained. Pakistan’s players presented gift baskets and sweets for the Australian players’ children on Christmas Day, with players and families interacting with easy familiarity. Pakistan formed a guard of honour for David Warner in Sydney in both innings, applauded him off the field and presented him with Babar Azam’s playing top signed by the whole team.”Playing the cricket with the right spirit of the game [was a positive],” Hafeez said. “Our captain led the side very well. He made correct calls at important times. It’s not just about your cricket, it’s about how you behave as an ambassador. I think he did most of the things correctly.”But the cold, hard facts remain unchanged. Pakistan may have competed more ably than in any of the six series they have now been successively whitewashed in against Australia away, but that streak – now stretched to 17 – remains stubbornly unbreakable. And though Australia were pushed closer than most people – even in Pakistan – might have expected given the visitors’ depleted bowling attack, the appetite for drawing consolation in Australia from what-ifs and so-nearly’s has begun to wear thin.

Each of Namibia’s top eight batters fell for single-digit scores, after Supun Waduge hit an unbeaten 56

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jan-2024A collective effort by Sri Lanka’s bowlers flattened Namibia for 56 in a chase of 134 in Kimberley. Left-arm spinner Vishwa Lahiru and medium-pacer Ruvishan Perera took three each as all of Namibia’s top eight batters fell for single-digit scores.After being put in, Sri Lanka got off to a slow start, losing Pulindu Perera for 3 in the seventh over. Fast bowler Zacheo Van Vuuren then caused a slide, taking the next four wickets to fall, and reducing Sri Lanka to 71 for 5 within the 20th over. But Sri Lanka’s No. 3 Supun Waduge then led the resistance, scoring an unbeaten 56 off 79, although he did not get much support at the other end. Johannes de Villiers took three lower-order wickets as Sri Lanka crumbled to 133 all out.In return, Namibia’s chase never took off. They could barely make any progress as the Sri Lanka bowlers not only struck regularly but also kept them from scoring runs. Namibia lost eight wickets for 25 runs within the 20th over. A rebuild was attempted by Peter-Daniel Blignaut and Hanro Badenhorst, who put up an 18-run partnership, but Perera ended that in the 26th over. Lahiru took the last wicket, as Namibia’s innings came to an end in 27 overs.A four-wicket haul from Isai Thorne, followed by an unbeaten fifty from Jewel Andrew, powered West Indies to their first win of the tournament, against Scotland in Potchefstroom.Batting first, Scotland began steadily, as the openers Jamie Dunk (57) and Adi Hegde (32) put up an 89-run stand. However, once Hegde fell in the 22nd over, Scotland struggled to put together meaningful partnerships, as Thorne rattled the team’s top and middle order on the way to finishing with 4 for 46. Alec Price at No.3 chipped in with 31, but only two other remaining batters managed double-digit scores, as Scotland were restricted to 205 for 9.West Indies lost wickets at regular intervals during the chase, but handy contributions from the captain Stephan Pascal (26), Jordan Johnson (24) and Mavendra Dindyal (29) kept them on track to overhauling the target. They were precariously placed at 111 for 5, but Andrew and Nathan Edward took the team home with an unbroken partnership of 95 runs. Andrew remained unbeaten on 64 off 60 balls, stroking eight fours, and was named Player of the Match.Ahmed Hassan struck twice early to dent Nepal’s sprightly start•Getty Images

Pakistan maintained their perfect start to the Under-19 World Cup, as Azan Awais’ unbeaten 63 powered the team to a five-wicket win against Nepal.Chasing a paltry 198, Pakistan were given an ideal start courtesy their openers Shamyl Hussain (37) and Shahzaib Khan (37), who added 80 in 21.2 overs. A string of quick wickets from Aakash Chand, including two in the same over, had Pakistan in a spot of bother at 104 for 4, but Awais, coming in at No.4, put together crucial partnerships with Ahmad Hassan and Haroon Arshad to take the team over the line inside 48 overs. Awais struck six fours during his 82-ball knock.Earlier, Nepal, opting to bat, had huffed and puffed their way to 197. Bipin Rawal was the team’s top scorer with 39, but he had little by way of support, as the team lost ground at regular intervals. Six different Pakistan bowlers were in amongst the wickets, and Arafat Minhas was the pick of the lot, ending with 3 for 23, while Umaid Shah and Hassan claimed two each.

High-quality centuries from two high-quality India batsmen have put them in command of the Colombo Test

The Report by Alagappan Muthu03-Aug-2017Stumps 3:03