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Timm van der Gugten, Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren and Brandon Glover have also been brought back into the squad

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Sep-2022Roelof van der Merwe, Colin Ackermann, Timm van der Gugten, Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren and Brandon Glover are all part of Netherlands’ 16-man squad for the men’s T20 World Cup, to be played in Australia in October-November.The six of them, among the country’s most well-travelled cricketers, were not in the 14-man squad that played Netherlands’ last T20I series, at home against New Zealand early last month. From that squad, Aryan Dutt, Clayton Floyd, Vivian Kingma and Ryan Klein have been omitted. The squad has experienced hands in Logan van Beek, Tom Cooper, Bas de Leede, Stephan Myburgh, Max O’Dowd, and will be led by wicketkeeper-batter Scott Edwards.

Netherlands T20 World Cup squad

IN: Colin Ackermann, Brandon Glover, Timm van der Gugten, Fred Klaassen, Paul van Meekeren, Roelof van der Merwe
OUT: Aryan Dutt, Clayton Floyd, Vivian Kingma, Ryan Klein

“We have assembled a well-balanced squad with an exciting blend of youth and experience for the upcoming T20 World Cup,” Ryan Cook, the head coach, said in a statement. “The experience playing in the Super League [for qualification to the ODI World Cup] will stand the team in good stead and good confidence can be taken from these performances.”We will look to continue the progression that was evident through the summer into the tournament and have some quality preparation planned prior to the event which will help the readiness for the group in both skills and cohesion.”Netherlands qualified for the T20 World Cup – alongside Zimbabwe – after the T20 World Cup qualifier, played in Zimbabwe in July. They were most recently in action in the ODI World Cup Super League, which Cook mentioned, against Pakistan, at home in Rotterdam, but lost the three-match series 3-0.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Van der Merwe was most recently in action for Northern Superchargers in the men’s Hundred in England, but last played internationally all the way back in November 2021, in an ODI series on the tour of South Africa. His last T20I was in October 2021 during the last T20 World Cup in the UAE, where Netherlands lost all their first-round matches – to Sri Lanka, Namibia and Ireland – to exit the tournament early.Ackermann has also not played a T20I since that World Cup, though he did play ODI cricket for Netherlands as recently as in the series against Afghanistan in Qatar in January this year.While Klaassen, van Meekeren and Glover were all in action at the World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe, van der Gugten missed that tournament. He has, however, been in action for Glamorgan in the county circuit, and also played one match for Birmingham Phoenix in the men’s Hundred.In the opening round of the T20 World Cup, Netherlands will take on Namibia, Sri Lanka and UAE in Geelong.

He trained with the Sunrisers on May 1, the same day he reported a fever

ESPNcricinfo staff04-May-2021Wriddhiman Saha has tested positive for Covid-19, meaning the Sunrisers Hyderabad became the third franchise to register positive cases at IPL 2021. The team was due to play the Mumbai Indians in Delhi on Tuesday but the IPL has been postponed following the surfacing of Covid-19 cases at least three franchises over the last few days.ESPNcricinfo understands that Saha reported symptoms, including a fever, on May 1, the day before the Sunrisers played against the Rajasthan Royals in Delhi, an afternoon match. Saha had trained with the rest of the Sunrisers squad on the afternoon of May 1. Following that training session, Saha felt he might have got a heat stroke and had even got tested for Covid-19 on the same day. The result of that test was negative, but he still reported a fever.Related

• Wriddhiman Saha, Amit Mishra, Prasidh Krishna recover from Covid-19

• India brace for long quarantine: two weeks in Mumbai, 10 days in Southampton

• Mike Hussey tests positive for Covid-19

• After IPL postponement, UAE becomes contender for T20 World Cup

• Australian players set for IPL exodus to the Maldives

Saha was isolated immediately by the franchise. He underwent two further tests, on Sunday and Monday. It is understood that he tested positive for Covid-19 in the the third round of testing.Saha had scored eight runs in two games and taken three catches this season before he was excluded from the playing XI.Two players from the Kolkata Knight Riders – spinner Varun Chakravarthy and seam bowler Sandeep Warrier – and two members of the Chennai Super Kings contingent – bowling coach L Balaji and a member of the maintenance staff – had also tested positive over the past two days. Subsequently, yesterday’s game between the Knight Riders and the Royal Challengers Bangalore was put off, before the announcement of the postponement today.

The quick bowler was charged under CA’s code of conduct and because of previous sanctions is now suspended for a match

Daniel Brettig and Alex Malcolm17-Nov-2019James Pattinson is out of the first Test against Pakistan at the Gabba after being suspended by Cricket Australia for delivering a volley of obscene personal abuse at Queensland’s Cameron Gannon during Victoria’s Sheffield Shield match that concluded on Friday.He has been found guilty of a level two breach of Article 2.13 of Cricket Australia’s code of conduct for personal abuse of a player. The charge was driven by umpires John Ward and Shawn Craig who felt that Pattinson overstepped the mark with his language towards Gannon, with whom Pattinson has been a BBL team-mate at both the Melbourne Renegades and Brisbane Heat.The alleged abuse is believed to have been of a homophobic nature, although Gannon and the Queensland players are understood not to have taken offence. However, Pattinson’s choice of words was immediately noted by Ward and Craig, who took the charge to the match referee David Talalla.”I made a mistake in the heat of the moment,” Pattinson said. “Straight away I realised I was in the wrong, and I apologised immediately, both to the opponent and to the umpires. I have done the wrong thing and accept the penalty. I’m gutted to miss a Test match, but the standards are there for a reason and the fault is mine.”Pattinson and Victoria were visibly frustrated throughout the match with some of the umpiring decisions, including his own lbw in the first innings on day two when he was part of Mitchell Swepson’s hat-trick. Pattinson had previously been found guilty of two level one code of conduct breaches over the past year for which he received a reprimand and a 100% match fee fine, the latter for showing dissent at the umpire’s decision in a Shield game against South Australia. Australia’s captain Tim Paine did not hide his disappointment.”It’s unfortunate, it doesn’t sit certainly with our values what James has done, he knows that and understands that and he’ll learn from it,” Paine said. “Missing a Test match potentially is a hard thing to deal with, but he’ll learn from that and come back better.”I don’t know the exact details of the situation, there’s been hearings and it’s been dealt with by the appropriate people. James understands he’s let himself down, he’s let our group down and we expect him to bounce back.”The vice-captain Pat Cummins said that he was hopeful Pattinson would learn from events, the second occasion in which he has been suspended from playing a Test match: he also missed the 2013 Mohali Test against India when he was suspended alongside Usman Khawaja, Mitchell Johnson and Shane Watson in the “homeworkgate” saga.”Not ideal, especially over the last couple of years we’ve been pretty clear on our values and what we stand for as a team. Hopefully Patto learns from what he’s done,” Cummins said. “We absolutely love playing with him, love having him around. For me when I’m out there, I’ll try and stay conscious of what I’m trying to do. It’s pretty hard sometimes, the heat of the moment, concentrating on bowling and trying to take wickets, you can slip up every now and then, but I won’t be changing too much from what I try to do.”Mitchell Starc, a fellow member of the pace battery, said that while he did not want to see Pattinson lose his expressive, aggressive streak, it was critical that all members of the team were aware of their very privileged, public place as role models for Australian cricket and wider society.”I did not see the incident but Patto is very much that huff and puff type and that is what we love about him,” Starc said. “He is in your face. He is someone you love to have on your team and not play against. Apart from his bowling skills he is that old school Australian fast bowler. I don’t say or do much these days. I try and stay pretty level off the field. It is the day and age where there are cameras everywhere. Players are role models. You have to be aware of not crossing that line but there will be times when players do.”Sean Carroll, Cricket Australia’s head of integrity and security, said: “We have a duty to uphold the highest standards of behaviour and the action taken in this matter demonstrates that. On this occasion, James acknowledges he fell short of that expectation.”It appears highly likely now that Mitchell Starc will be the third fast bowler chosen alongside Pat Cummins and Josh Hazlewood although Pattinson did not think he would be selected in any case. Australia have not added a replacement to the squad with Michael Neser the other quick bowler available.

Olly Stone’s four wickets gave Warwickshire hope but Durham’s ninth-wicket pair refused to budge

ECB Reporters Network07-Sep-20181:22

Warwickshire’s lead cut as Division Two heats up

Warwickshire 310 (Trott 79, McCarthy 4-58) and 199 (Hain 58*, Patel 7-54) drew with Durham 292 (Stone 7-59) and 115 for 8 (Stone 4-37)
ScorecardDurham’s tail dug deep to earn a draw and dent Warwickshire’s promotion hopes on day four of their captivating Specsavers County Championship match at Edgbaston.Set 218 to win from 41 overs, Durham were fancying their chances but four wickets from Olly Stone helped reduce the visitors to 102 for eight with six overs remaining.The Bears intensified their efforts, missing the edge many times, but wicketkeeper Stuart Poynter (9*) and number ten Matt Salisbury (5*) put on a resolute ninth-wicket partnership of 13 runs from 35 balls.It was heartbreak for a home side that remains top but sees their lead reduced to seven points to second placed Kent who beat Northants earlier in the afternoon.With 70 overs lost in the match and Warwickshire’s promotion rivals Sussex and Kent closing in on top spot, there was plenty of urgency from the hosts to engineer a winning opportunity.Starting the day on 28 for one, Ian Bell was the first to go, caught by Graham Clark after wafting at Axar Patel’s first ball for 10, with Dominic Sibley following him shortly after, bowled by Patel for 27 trying to sweep.Jonathan Trott then fell four balls later, edging to Paul Collingwood for 13 off Barry McCarthy, leaving the Bears struggling on 68 for four.A valuable partnership of 89 from 202 balls between Sam Hain and Tim Ambrose who was dropped twice on 10 and 14, edged Warwickshire ahead in the game.But once Ambrose was trapped LBW by Patel, wickets fell at an alarming rate – five in nine overs – as the spinner bulldozed through the tail, once Barry McCarthy removed Keith Barker for five, to chalk up a career-best of 27.4-12-54-7.The 24 year-old bowled his namesake for seven, before getting Chris Wright (15), Stone (0) and Ryan Sidebottom to hole out with the latter dismissal coming via the head of Will Smith at short leg.Durham needed to go at 5.31 an over to reach their target, but they were immediately put on the back foot.Barker trapped Alex Lees lbw for nine, before Wright got Cameron Steel to edge behind for 21, whilst Stone dismissed Smith for eight an over later. Both wickets had come following a bowling change.Stone struck again, Richardson given lbw, putting the visitors on 54 for four and needing another 164 to win from 22.4 overs.An away win now looked heavily unlikely and Warwickshire, who were rotating the seam attack, struck with 21 overs remaining when Stone got Clark to find Hain at deep square for 23.Patel, who was going at a run a ball, was the next to fall trapped LBW by Barker for 22 leaving the experienced Collingwood and Stuart Poynter to see out the final the thirteen overs.But Collingwood was caught by Ambrose for 13 off the bowling of Wright and McCarthy followed when Stone trapped him lbw for two.Warwickshire’s tails were up but Durham’s were a match, defending seven intense overs of pace which saw five slips and no fielder more than 15 yards away from the bat.There’s little time for either side to dust themselves down with Warwickshire heading to Grace Road to face Leicestershire on Monday, whilst Durham return to Chester-le-Street to face third placed Sussex.

Ahead of their first Champions Trophy in 10 years, Bangladesh feel they have finally earned what they have always wanted – respect from their peers

Mohammad Isam30-May-2017For a long time, it was only one-off wins that brought the attention of the cricket world upon Bangladesh. But still, respect was hard to come by. Then came the 2015 World Cup, series wins against India, South Africa and Pakistan, and now, ahead of their first Champions Trophy in 10 years, Bangladesh are finally getting what they have wanted for so long.Tamim Iqbal, who has been closely involved in the team’s rise as an ODI force, said they have worked to get to a level where oppositions are wary of them. Bangladesh recently rose to No. 6 in the ICC rankings – their highest mark. The journey began seven years ago, from No. 9, and it isn’t done yet.”That’s how it goes, you know,” Tamim said. “When your team is winning games, when your team is playing better cricket people will notice you, people will respect you. And we deserve the respect we are getting.”As a team, we have come up a long way. That time we were ranked 10th, now we are ranked sixth. As I told you before, it didn’t come easy. We had to go through a lot of lost matches, hard work and criticism as well. But the last two years has been brilliant for Bangladesh cricket. [We are] probably one of the most successful teams in the world if you see in the last two years.”Bangladesh have a win-loss ratio of 1.46 from 34 matches since the start of 2015 – the best among the Asian teams. They have also developed the backbone to fight out of tough situations, as evidenced by a comeback win against Sri Lanka in Tests, a rout of Afghanistan to secure their 100th victory in ODIs and a spirited defence of 238 against England in Dhaka.It is against England that Bangladesh begin their Champions Trophy campaign, on Thursday, and while Tamim understood the heft of the challenge ahead of them, he wanted his team to draw from the good memories of their recent past.”We just need to carry on those things and keep on improving. We know one thing that we need to improve a hell of a lot is to be consistent in international cricket and beat good teams like India, England or Pakistan. We have to keep improving and that’s what we are looking for.”We’ve done well against [England], but they are playing in home conditions and they have some serious individual players as well. If we want to repeat the result again, we have to be on top of our game in all departments because England is a very, very strong team.”Beating higher ranked teams in the Champions Trophy will also boost Bangladesh’s hopes of direct qualification into the 2019 World Cup. Only the top eight teams on the ODI rankings on September 30 earn that right, while the rest will have to go through a qualifying tournament in April 2018.”I think we are very close to qualifying,” Tamim said. “During the tri-series [in Ireland earlier this month], we won against New Zealand and we became the sixth-ranked team in the world. Those things are nice to have but when you are playing in such a big tournament you don’t want to be thinking of those kinds of things, rather than concentrate on winning games. We’ll try to our best in these three matches to do something special for the nation.”

Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke, the newly elected BCCI president and secretary, have said they see the implementation of the Lodha Committee report as an “opportunity” rather than a challenge

Nagraj Gollapudi22-May-2016Anurag Thakur and Ajay Shirke, the newly elected BCCI president and secretary, have said they see the implementation of the Lodha Committee report as an “opportunity” rather than a challenge. They said the BCCI was in favour of reforms – “a continuing process” – even though it did not agree entirely with all the recommendations, as elaborated by Thakur’s predecessor Shashank Manohar on Saturday.”Where there is a challenge, there is opportunity,” Thakur said in his first news briefing as board president on Sunday. “It depends on how you look at the scenario – you may see it as a challenge, I see it as an opportunity that this is the time to deliver.”On Saturday Manohar had reiterated that the main reason he stepped down as BCCI president was that he could not have implemented the Lodha Committee recommendations in full. According to Manohar, the BCCI was happy with 75% of the recommendations, but had strong reservations against a handful.Thakur echoed the same sentiments. “We are not waiting for the judgement to come and then implement something. Whatever is possible and practical and required we are implementing it from time to time. And I said it is a continuous process and reforms will carry on.”Shirke, who was previously a BCCI treasurer, had stridently opposed the recommendations once they were made public on January 4. Now he said reforms did not equate to a complete structural overhaul. “Improvement in anything is a perennial process, but often improvement does not require reinventing the wheel. Minor course corrections are necessary and they will be taken as and when necessary.”In the last two months the BCCI legal counsel KK Venugopal and the lawyers representing various state associations had argued strongly against some of the Lodha Committee’s recommendations in front of the two-judge bench of the Supreme Court comprising TS Thakur, the chief justice of India, and Justice Ibrahim Kalifullah. In response the court had played hardball and told the BCCI it could not function like an exclusive club any more, and that it was mandatory to implement the recommendations.Thakur said the BCCI was not “running away”, but maintained it was not “practical” to implement all the recommendations. “The world knows how successfully, transparently and in an effective manner we have run the board in the last so many years,” Thakur said. “If there was any shortcoming, we have overcome that, we have tried to mend our ways. There is always a way or an area to improve and we are not running away from anything.”Manohar had said the recommendation limiting advertisement breaks only to drinks, lunch, tea and innings breaks would destroy the BCCI and bring down its revenues from an estimated INR 2000-odd crore to INR 400 crore. Thakur did not talk numbers, but stuck to a similar line of argument.”If you look at the reports the fastest growing league in the world is IPL which is a great achievement of the BCCI,” Thakur said. “They have worked well, the franchises have contributed. If you look at the other side of it, where do you get the major revenues from? It is from the home series. And your revenue comes from where? It is from the advertisements.”And you then pay to the state associations, the team members. The state associations then create infrastructure from the money they receive from the BCCI. World over, the infrastructure is created by the government but in India the sports infrastructure for other games are created by the government [while] only for cricket the infrastructure is created by the BCCI. We don’t get even a single penny from the state governments or the central government.”

Canada’s Twenty20 squad will travel to Houston, Texas ahead of the ICC Americas Division One T20 tournament to play three warm-up matches against an invitational XI assembled by local entrepreneur Sakhi Muhammad

Peter Della Penna21-Apr-2015Canada’s Twenty20 squad will travel to Houston, Texas ahead of the ICC Americas Division One T20 tournament to play three warm-up matches against an invitational XI assembled by local entrepreneur Sakhi Muhammad.A Cricket Canada official confirmed to ESPNcricinfo that the games will be played on April 28, 29 and May 1 before the ICC Americas qualifier which begins on May 3 in Indianapolis. Muhammad’s Smart Choice Auto Group is a former sponsor of the USA national team, and they will play an XI that is likely to include former West Indies internationals Mervyn Dillon and Ricardo Powell, as well Timroy Allen, Usman Shuja and former USA captain Steve Massiah, who were omitted from USA’s squad for the ICC Americas tournament.Muhammad, 48, will cover Canada’s local expenses in Houston including hotel accommodation, ground transportation and meals. He says he made a similar offer to USACA to host USA’s squad for warm-up matches ahead of their participation at ICC WCL Division Three in Malaysia last October, but USACA never responded to his phone calls or emails. It played a part in his decision to end sponsorship ties with USACA after an 18-month partnership beginning in May 2013.”How can you ignore people who have sponsored you?” Muhammad said. “How can you forget those guys and not respond to them? Every customer is important to me. If they contact you, you must respond. It doesn’t look good from a business point of view. You don’t do stuff like that.”Though he is no longer a sponsor of USACA, Muhammad says he has an interest in helping out cricketers from around the region. His Smart Choice club team, which participates in various private cash tournaments around the country, has featured many USA players including new captain Muhammad Ghous, Steven Taylor, Jasdeep Singh and Adil Bhatti. Muhammad also has a good relationship with Canada players like Ruvindu Gunasekera, Hiral Patel and Rizwan Cheema – one of the reasons he invited Cricket Canada for the mini-tour.”Canada will be better prepared,” Muhammad said. “This is the fact right now and we cannot walk away from it. You’d have to ask USACA why they refused yesterday and weren’t approached this time. I waited to assemble my team for about a month before finalising. If they had approached me and said we’d like to have our guys play against Canada, I’d have loved to do it because ultimately our preference is to help out the USA team too.”The games will be played at the Smart Choice Moosa Stadium – a brand new turf wicket complex in the suburb of Pearland located about 20 miles south of downtown Houston, for which Muhammad pitched in $2million of his own money. He insists he does not want his initiative to be seen as a threat to other facilities in the country like the World Sports Park or Central Broward Regional Park in Lauderhill, Florida.”We are not here to compete against California, Florida or Indianapolis,” Muhammad said. “More turf wickets are good for the country overall. You can’t just have Houston only. There need to be four or five centers where you can do this but the advantage we have is that Houston has a subcontinent population of over 250,000. Even if you get 5,000 of them interested you’re still doing good and if you have a good facility that gets people to come out and doesn’t cost too much to maintain then I think it’s worth it.”The winner of the mini-series will claim the Sushil Nadkarni International Trophy, named after the recently retired USA batsman.”He (Nadkarni) is from Houston and he has done a lot for US cricket,” Muhammad said, when asked about his reason for naming the trophy after Nadkarni. “After he retired I noticed that there was nothing done officially so being a Houstonian, it was important for us to acknowledge him. Doing this is something good in the long term for other players, especially for Houston people and for other senior players who play for the national team.”

ESPNcricinfo’s expanded coverage of English county cricket has been recognised by the ECB after it was named online publication of the year

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-2012ESPNcricinfo’s expanded coverage of English county cricket has been recognised by the ECB after it was named online publication of the year in the governing body’s 2012 County Journalism Awards.Our expert team, led by senior correspondent George Dobell, has consistently led the way in providing the brightest and most significant county cricket coverage around. No other website offers the same quality of reporting, whether in the latest news stories, our extensive match reports or the rolling coverage provided daily in our insightful and irreverent county blog.Throughout the 2012 season, county cricket lovers increasingly chose ESPNcricinfo as their preferred choice for news of the domestic game – and our extensive coverage will continue in 2013.”The ECB is keen to promote the coverage of county cricket and we were delighted with both the quantity and quality of entries for this year’s competition,” ECB chief executive, David Collier, said. “Congratulations go to all our winners and our thanks to the Cricket Writers’ Club and the judging panel for supporting this initiative once again.”Other winners included the , named national newspaper of the year, the , which took the regional award, and special acknowledgement of the recently founded for “outstanding innovation and support of county cricket”. David Jordan, who writes for the Sportsbeat press agency, was named young journalist of the year.The awards were presented by Collier as part of an official reception hosted by the Lord’s Taverners for this year’s County Championship winners, Warwickshire. Women’s County Champions, Kent, were also present at Buckingham Palace for the annual presentation of the trophies by HRH The Duke of Edinburgh, who is Patron and “Twelfth Man” of recreational cricket’s official charity.Pat Gibson, the chairman of the Cricket Writers’ Club, added: “The winners in the national newspaper and online categories were rewarded for significantly improving their coverage and while the Yorkshire Post continues to set the standard among the regionals they were challenged hard by other newspapers from around the country.”

Shane Warne has declared that he will come out of retirement to play in the Big Bash League this summer, but he has not yet decided which team will win his services

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Sep-2011Shane Warne has declared that he will come out of retirement to play in the Big Bash League this summer, but he has not yet decided which team will win his services. Warne, 42, has not played elite cricket in Australia since his final Test, at the SCG in January 2007.His return will be a massive boost for the first season of the BBL, a competition that Cricket Australia has high hopes for when it starts in December. Warne said on on Channel Nine that he had not decided whether to turn out for the Melbourne Stars, who will play at the MCG, or the Docklands-based Melbourne Renegades, but that he was definitely planning to play.”It’s great that there’s two teams here,” Warne said. “I’m not leaning one way or the other. I’m definitely going to play a few games and have some fun. I think it will be nice to help the young players out and have a bit of fun with the Twenty20.”Warne retired from the IPL this year but has been hinting for some time at a possible comeback for the BBL. He won’t be the only former Australia star to come out of retirement for the Twenty20 tournament; the Brisbane Heat have already signed Matthew Hayden.

England duly wrapped up a comfortable 24-run victory to take a 1-0 lead in their five-match ODI series against Pakistan at Chester-le-Street

The Bulletin by Andrew McGlashan at Chester-le-Street10-Sep-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJonathan Trott guided England’s innings after Steve Davies sparkled at the top•Getty Images

England’s winning momentum showed no signs of abating as they took the opening one-day international at Chester-le-Street by 24 runs, but at least they were made to work a little harder by Pakistan. Steve Davies led the batting effort with a powerful 87 off 67 balls, his first international half-century, and was backed up by a composed 69 from Jonathan Trott as England piled up 274 for 6 in a match reduced to 41 overs by a wet outfield. For once the visitors’ batting didn’t implode as some spirited contributions kept them alive but they couldn’t find the major stand required.There are 12 ODIs between now and the start of the World Cup for England to finalise their plans but conditions in Durham during early September are a million miles away from anything they’ll face in India, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. However, this is a strong one-day unit being put into place and one of the few areas still containing some uncertainty, the wicketkeeper-opening batsman, was a success here with Davies’ impressive effort.His only previous ODI came as an emergency replacement for Matt Prior at last year’s Champions Trophy when he faced Australia in the semi-final at Centurion. Here he timed the ball beautifully all around the wicket and was especially strong square through the off side whenever he was offered width during a lively 37-ball fifty. Unlike Craig Kieswetter, who often looked hyperactive at the crease and lost control of his shots, Davies remained still and composed until he fell cutting at Saeed Ajmal.In their current frame of mind it would have taken a monumental effort from Pakistan to chase down the runs, but they at least gave themselves half a chance. Mohammad Hafeez and Kamran Akmal added 62 for the first wicket, Pakistan’s best opening stand in any international since the Headingley Test against Australia, before Graeme Swann’s usual party trick of a first over wicket when Hafeez was well caught at deep-square leg.Despite all the allegations circulating in recent weeks players have insisted the matches will be played in the right spirit, but for a moment tensions nearly boiled over during Stuart Broad’s second over. Kamran pulled out of his stance and pointed angrily towards Trott at mid-on then Andrew Strauss became involved before Billy Doctrove stepped in. The heated moment appeared to pass by the end of the over, but feelings were clearly running fairly high.England’s fielding wasn’t quite at its best as Kamran was given two lives in two balls when he was missed by Strauss at point and Trott at long-off. This time the home side had breathing space, but Andy Flower and Richard Halsall, the fielding coach, will have noted the errors.
Michael Yardy reasserted England’s control when he had Mohammad Yousuf lbw coming too far across the crease and Swann won his duel against Kamran when the wicketkeeper couldn’t clear long off having made his first half-century of the tour.Umar Akmal hit 43 off 33 balls before trying to scooping Broad over the keeper and Asad Shafiq showed some spirit as he clubbed Tim Bresnan for four boundaries. But Shahid Afridi could barely middle the ball during a painful 25-ball innings and when he carved to cover it really was the end for Pakistan’s slim chances.It was England’s efficient batting display which set up the victory and they’d been led off in style as the new opening duo of Davies and Strauss who added 78 in 12 overs. Mohammad Irfan’s much-anticipated introduction into international cricket didn’t quite go to plan as his first over was dispatched for 15. However, it was still a touch harsh when he was whipped out of the attack after one over and his replacement, Umar Gul, didn’t do any better as his two-over burst cost 22 and he finished with 67 off six overs.Shoaib Akhtar was the only paceman to offer any control and was unlucky not to claim success in an opening five-over burst that cost just nine runs. He received very little support, however, and despite his parsimonious efforts England had 63 on the board at the end of his opening spell. Davies was dropped at short cover on 21 when Afridi could hold a stinging drive and Strauss continued to show impressive intent – no doubt aware that scoring heavily off the spinners will be key in the World Cup – as he launched Ajmal over long-on for his second six, Ajmal, though, claimed revenge when Strauss missed a mighty sweep and he was given a send-off by the bowler for his troubles.With Trott playing himself in and working the ball for ones and twos the onus was on Davies to keep the tempo high which he did successfully until he tried to cut Ajmal 13 short of his hundred.
Pakistan were unlucky not to strike again shortly afterwards when Doctrove failed to spot Trott’s edge off Ajmal on 26 and then lost the services of Irfan who limped off midway through his sixth over.Paul Collingwood fell trying to take advantage of the batting Powerplay and Eoin Morgan edged a cut off Afridi, but Trott registered his first boundary off his 54th delivery when he back-cut Shoaib.Trott then brought up his fifty from 64 balls and immediately stepped on the gas with the confidence of a man who is in the form of his life. A few lusty blows from Ravi Bopara ensured the momentum was all England’s and they never really looked liked losing. It says everything about the last two weeks that there was even a sense of gratefulness just for something resembling a contest.