Australia centurion Steve Smith admitted Nathan Lyon’s calf injury does not look good with the tourists’ braced to play the rest of the second Ashes Test without their frontline spinner.
Lyon injured his right calf while trying to make up ground to catch Ben Duckett’s lofted pull shot off Cameron Green in the 37th over of England’s innings.
The sight of Lyon holding the back of his calf and being forced to hobble off the pitch brought back memories of Glenn McGrath’s busted ankle on the eve of the second Ashes Test in the 2005 series.
A Cricket Australia spokesperson later confirmed Lyon was being assessed and while no scan has been booked, his chances of featuring in the rest of the Lord’s Test look over and his whole series could even be in doubt.
“Yeah, I haven’t been up in the sheds yet but obviously it didn’t look good,” Smith conceded.
“I mean it doesn’t look ideal for the rest of the game. I’m not sure how he actually is, but if he is no good, it is obviously a big loss for us.
“He is in his 100th consecutive Test match, which I know he was really looking forward to taking part in and having a role in.
“Fingers crossed he is okay but it didn’t look good obviously.
“It is not ideal, particularly your spin bowler. One player with one role. Batters, I suppose there are loads of us around so it is a bit different.
“Nathan, if he is no good, would be a huge loss. However, we have Todd Murphy waiting in the wings, who has been bowling beautifully in nets and bowled really well in India when he got his opportunity.
“I would be confident if he came in that he would do a terrific job for us but fingers crossed Nathan is alright.”
Smith, who struck 110 in Australia’s first innings total of 416, warmed up for this English summer with a three-match stint for Sussex, where he claimed two for 55 in his final appearance against Glamorgan.
But the part-time leg-spinner insisted: “I haven’t been working on my bowling at all.
“I bowled a few overs at the back end of one of the games – where pretty much the game was dead – just because everyone else was cooked.
“Hopefully I won’t have to bowl too much. I thought (Travis) Heady bowled all right, a bit different to Nathan, just skidding them more than Nathan does.
“Yeah, Heady is probably the one who is going to have to take a fair chunk of the spin overs and maybe myself and Marnus (Labuschagne) will chop in here and there.
“Yeah, not ideal when you lose your spinner on a surface that is not offering a great deal for the quick bowlers.”
England opener Ben Duckett sent his best wishes to Lyon but acknowledged the absence of Australia’s veteran spinner could be crucial in their efforts to level the series.
“It is a huge shame. I really hope it’s not too bad for him,” Duckett said.
“You never want to see anyone go down with an injury. He was going to play a massive part in that fourth innings because he is such a good bowler. If they go bumpers with all three bowlers, they’ll be pretty tired.”
Smith, who was 85 not out overnight, celebrated his 32nd Test hundred in the morning session.
A sumptuous cover drive for four earned Smith his 12th Ashes century, with eight of them occurring in England.
He added: “It is obviously a huge moment, I love playing here at Lords. I have spent a fair bit of time in the middle the last two times here and then this game as well.
“It is a nice place to play if you get in, you get good value for your shots and nice to get myself back up on the honours board again.”
Imlach puts Harpy Eagles’ West Indies Championship success down to togetherness- “We had different players stand up at different times”
Togetherness was the main reason for the Guyana Harpy Eagles successful defence of their West Indies Championship title according to skipper Tevin Imlach.
The Harpy Eagles recovered from a draw and a loss in their first two games to win their final five games on their way to winning their second straight title.
“We had different players stand up at different times which is very important,” Imlach said in an appearance on the Mason & Guest radio show on Tuesday.
“You never want to rely on one or two players. We have a lot of depth in our batting and we have three very good spinners that would’ve played for the West Indies already in Gudakesh Motie, Veerasammy Permaul and Kevin Sinclair,” Imlach added.
Sinclair and Imlach finished third and sixth on the top run scorers list with 508 and 485 runs, respectively.
Sinclair made one hundred and two fifties and finished with an average of 63.50 in his seven games while Imlach, who missed the first two rounds of the tournament while on West Indies duty, made two hundreds and three fifties in his five games and finished with an average of 53.88.
The Harpy Eagles also had two more batsmen cross the 300-run mark in Kevlon Anderson (332) and Tagenarine Chanderpaul (323). Kemol Savory narrowly missed out on joining this club after finishing with 289. Chanderpaul and Savory also both scored a century, each, this season.
It was also a collective effort with the ball for the champions. Permaul led the way with 29 wickets in seven games followed by pacer Nial Smith who finished with 20 wickets from four matches.
Motie and Isai Thorne followed with 19 wickets from five and six matches, respectively, while Kevin Sinclair took 13 wickets in seven games and Ronaldo Alimohamed took 12 wickets in six outings.
This season was also Imlach’s first captaining the Harpy Eagles in the four-day format after taking over from the retired Leon Johnson who led Guyana to six regional four-day titles.
“It was challenging,” Imlach said about filling Johnson’s shoes.
“Big shoes to fill obviously with Leon Johnson retiring but it was good. It is much different when you play with these guys and when you’re in a leadership position because you have to be the one making the calls that they may not necessarily always like. These players want the ball in their hands at all times and want to make a difference so sometimes it is difficult. It’s a good learning experience. I’m learning about them and they’re learning about me as well,” he added.
Imlach was also a member of the West Indies Test squad to Australia in December last year. He said that despite not getting a game, he took some things from his net sessions down under into this first-class season.
“It was very good. It was different to what we are accustomed to in the Caribbean. The pitches are a lot bouncier and the ball tends to seam around a bit more. I didn’t manage to play in the games but I spent some time in the nets and it was good. It was fruitful. I learned a lot that I took into this season,” he said.
Imlach's next assignment could be as part of the regional side to take on England in three Tests from July 10-30.
Nortje makes international return for South Africa's T20 World Cup squad
Anrich Nortje earned a recall to South Africa's fold as he was included in the Proteas' 15-man squad for the T20 World Cup.
Nortje has been in action in the Indian Premier League, but has not played for South Africa, who will be captained by Aiden Markram, in nine months.
While he has taken seven wickets in six matches for the Delhi Capitals, Nortje has gone at 13.36 runs per over, but has been given the nod due to his pace.
"Anrich has got another month before the World Cup starts so I have no doubt he'll hit his straps," South Africa coach Rob Walter said.
"It's good to see that his speed is up. The one thing Anrich has that separates him from others is raw pace. There's not many guys who can bowl 150kph and he can. Pace is an X-factor."
Lungi Ngidi has missed out, though he is a travelling reserve.
Quinton de Kock has not not been in good form, but has made the cut due to historical performances. He is no longer under contract at Cricket South Africa (CSA) and retired from ODIs last year.
"Quinny, we've seen him do it time and time again for us," Walter said.
"Reeza [Hendricks] has been a star performer for us in T20 cricket, was a standout in this domestic CSA T20 challenge again, and Ryan Rickelton has had two outstanding competitions really where he's played the brand of cricket that we're looking to play.
"And then we're going to have Markram and that'll be the top order. It's mostly a performance-based decision and from Quinton's point of view is just a real knowledge of what he's capable of."
Rickelton and Ottniel Baartman have been standout performers in the SA20 this year, and could earn their maiden T20I caps.
South Africa did not make it out of the Super 12 stage at the last World Cup in 2022.
Three big players, Temba Bavuma, Rilee Rossouw and Wayne Parnell, have missed out compared to the squad for that tournament.
The Proteas start their World Cup campaign against Sri Lanka on June 3, after playing a warm-up series against West Indies.
South Africa squad:
Aiden Markram (capt), Ottniel Baartman, Gerald Coetzee, Quinton de Kock, Bjorn Fortuin, Reeza Hendricks, Marco Jansen, Heinrich Klaasen, Keshav Maharaj, David Miller, Anrich Nortje, Kagiso Rabada, Ryan Rickelton, Tabraiz Shamsi, Tristan Stubbs.
IPL: Stoinis key for LSG as they rise to third after seeing off Indians
Marcus Stoinis starred for Lucknow Super Giants as they edged to a four-wicket victory over Mumbai Indians to move into third in the Indian Premier League.
Mumbai's chances of another high-scoring innings were dented early on as Ishan Kishan's low lob was taken by Mayank Yadav before Suryakumar Yadav was caught behind and walked after a successful Lucknow review inside the first three overs.
The Indians struggled to get going, and even Nehal Wadhera's 46 from 41 balls and Tim David's unbeaten 35 off 18 were not enough to drag Mumbai over the 150 mark as they finished their 20 overs on 144-7.
Having been left out of India's T20 World Cup squad, Lucknow captain KL Rahul managed 28 before he was dismissed in the fourth over.
But thanks to Stoinis' heavy lifting, as he plundered 62, including seven fours and two sixes, LSG looked set to cruise to victory.
The momentum stalled, though, when Stoinis was caught out by Tilak Varma, but Nicholas Pooran and Krunal Pandya eventually saw them over the line with just four balls left to play with.
Data Debrief: Another happy away day for Stoinis
This is the third game in which Stoinis has passed 50, and he has enjoyed another high score away from home after reaching 124 in LSG's trip to Chennai Super Kings.
Despite making an early exit, Rahul (406), is now up to fourth in the race for this season's orange cap, although Virat Kohli continues to set the pace with 500 runs.
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