Essex claimed their second win of the Vitality County Championship season with a comprehensive victory by an innings and 124 runs inside three days over Lancashire.
Lancashire capitulated in less than 42 overs for the second time and it was Jamie Porter who picked up the first of nine wickets to fall in the session – finishing with three for 24, while Shane Snater got in on the act with three for 17.
Lancashire had started day three on 10 for one, requiring another 221 runs to make the hosts bat again but lost five wickets in the first hour and did not recover, with the game wrapped up in extra time before the scheduled lunch interval.
Durham earned their first victory of the season after defeating Worcestershire by 185 runs on day three in the battle of last season’s two promoted sides.
Worcestershire’s chances of chasing down a mammoth 458 was dented by Paul Coughlin, who picked up three wickets in quick succession to curtail any chances of the opposition doing the unthinkable.
Matthew Potts also picked up a couple of wickets and with half the side back in the hutch for just 121 in only 28 overs, the contest was all but over and despite some late resistance from Nathan Smith and Matthew Waite, it was not enough to stop them from falling to defeat.
Fletcha Middleton claimed his maiden County Championship century but it may only count for a draw as Hampshire and Warwickshire head into day four.
Middleton reached 116 as he put on 213 runs for the second wicket alongside Nick Gubbins who also passed his century in a stunning partnership between the two.
Hampshire looked set for a huge score but a mid-afternoon collapse saw them lose five wickets for just 45, giving Warwickshire a 90-run first-innings lead.
Rob Yates and opening partner Alex Davies reached 46 without loss by close – a lead of 136.
Champions Surrey need five wickets on the final day to claim their first win of the season over Kent at Canterbury.
They reduced the hosts to 120 for five in their second innings, with Dan Worrall impressing by taking three for 18, after Surrey declared on 543 for seven.
Matt Parkinson took five wickets for Kent as Surrey earned a first-innings lead of 299, with Dom Sibley scoring 150, Dan Lawrence 112 and Jamie Smith contributing 58.
Joe Clarke and Will Young shared a record Nottinghamshire stand of 370 to lead Somerset by 157 runs.
Clarke hit an undefeated 209, while Young contributed 156 not out to break a 121-year-old Nottinghamshire record.
In Division Two, Leus Du Plooy and Ryan Higgins steered Middlesex to a six-wicket victory against Yorkshire at Lord’s.
The pair shared a match-winning stand of 59 just when the hosts were wobbling at 77 for three chasing 158 and Du Plooy fell eight short of 50 with victory in sight, but Higgins remained 33 not out when Stephen Eskinazi made the winning runs.
Ollie Robinson took two wickets in three balls as Sussex look to close victory against Gloucestershire.
After bowling 27 wicketless overs in the match, Robinson was finally rewarded when he dismissed Cameron Bancroft and James Bracey as Gloucestershire fell to 27 for four before slightly improving to 81 for six, leading by just 19 runs.
Jayden Seales had taken two wickets in his first two overs after Gloucestershire entered their second innings trailing by 62 after dismissing Sussex for 479.
Karun Nair’s unbeaten double hundred put Northamptonshire in a strong position in their match against Glamorgan.
He scored 202 not out from 253 balls, propping up a commanding total of 605 for six declared, and shared a sixth-wicket partnership of 212 with Saif Zaib, who scored a century.
Glamorgan go into day four trailing by 230 runs with seven wickets remaining.
Wayne Madsen rescued Derbyshire from the threat of a three-day defeat as they trail Leicestershire by 183 runs with four wickets remaining.
Derbyshire were made to follow on 407 runs behind and Madsen blocked the visitors’ push for victory with an unbeaten 59 from 114 to finish 224 for six at stumps.
CWI's Lead Selector Haynes confident in T20 World Cup squad- “We’ve got a team that can win this World Cup”
CWI Lead Selector, Dr. The Hon. Desmond Haynes, believes the squad that has been selected to represent the West Indies at the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup set for June 1-29 in the Caribbean and the USA can replicate the performances of the region’s title-winning squads in 2012 and 2016.
“This is a very good time in West Indies cricket. I believe that we’ve got a team that can win this World Cup and I feel damn good about this,” Haynes said in a Friday press conference announcing the squad.
“We’ve had preparations for the last year. The majority of the players, we had them involved and they were very successful. This is a very exciting time for us and I would hope that everyone in the Caribbean and all the West Indies fans support us because this is our best chance,” he added.
Also on hand at Friday’s press conference was West Indies Men’s ODI and T20I head coach Daren Sammy who also expressed confidence in the squad ahead of the tournament.
“We’ve known how to select winning teams. We’ve done it before and I think, as a selection group, we’re really excited about it,” Sammy said.
“It’s an exciting time and this preparation did not start now. It started from the last World Cup in Australia. What we’ve been able to do throughout the last year as a T20 group, the players we’ve exposed, has brought us to this moment and I think we’re about to knock it out of this world,” he added.
Two of the standout names in the 15-man squad were pacer Shamar Joseph and Shimron Hetmyer.
Joseph made his Test debut during the recent tour to Australia and became a worldwide phenomenon when he took a seven-wicket haul in the final innings despite an injured foot to give West Indies a dramatic eight-run win at the Gabba in the second Test. It was West Indies' first Test win in Australia since 1997.
This will be his first opportunity to represent the West Indies in the T20I format. He’s currently getting his first crack at franchise T20 cricket as he is a member of the Lucknow Super Giants in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).
“You really can’t question Shamar Joseph’s skills. We saw him in Australia. We were looking at someone up front to bowl in the first powerplay and we think he ticks that box for us,” Haynes said.
Hetmyer is making his return to the squad after being left out for the tour of Australia. Haynes said it was a tough time deciding whether to pick Hetmyer or Kyle Mayers.
“It was a very close decision between Kyle and Hettie but we look at it from the point of view that we wanted the extra batsman to be one batting down the order,” he said.
Since the start of Daren Sammy’s tenure as head coach, he has always placed an emphasis on the importance of roles in a successful T20 outfit.
He believes that this 15-man group has covered all the necessary bases.
“We are ready. When you look at role definition from the group we’ve selected, I think we’ve come up with the best combination to help us win this World Cup.
The hosts will open their campaign against Papua New Guinea at Providence in Guyana on June 2.
Full squad: Rovman Powell (C), Alzarri Joseph (VC), Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Gudakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd
Shamar Joseph in as West Indies announces 15-member T20 World Cup squad
There were no real surprises, as West Indies announced their 15-member squad for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted in the Caribbean and United States.
The Darren Sammy-coached squad to be led by Jamaican Rovman Powell includes all the usual suspects, with rising fast bowling sensation Shamar Joseph being the only fresh face to the T20 unit.
West Indies, a two-time champion, having won the tournament in 2012 and 2016, will contest Group C of the global showpiece alongside Afghanistan, New Zealand, and two ICC Associate teams, Papua New Guinea and Uganda.
The Caribbean side is scheduled to kick off its title charge against Papa New Guinea on June 2, in Guyana.
All teams are allowed to make changes to their squad until 25 May, after which any alteration will require approval from ICC's Event Technical Committee.
More to come...
Squad: Rovman Powell (c), Alzarri Joseph, Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosain, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Gudakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd
"We are where we want to be": Spooner pleased with response at box offices despite early glitches
Despite some early glitches at Kensington Oval’s box, in Barbados, Philip Spooner says things remain on the up where ticket sales for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is concerned.
Spooner, the tournament’s global media operations Manager, acknowledged the early problems, but said efforts were made to rectify the issues, as cricket fans flocked the venues to secure tickets for the highly-anticipated June 1-29 tournament, to be hosted in the Caribbean and United States.
To celebrate 30 days to go to the start of the tournament, box offices were opened on Thursday until the end of the event across the six host locations -Antigua and Barbuda: Antigua Recreation Ground; Barbados: Kensington Oval; Guyana: Guyana Cricket Board Office; Saint Lucia: Daren Sammy Cricket Ground; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Commercial Centre, and Trinidad and Tobago: Queen’s Park Oval and National Cricket Centre -in the West Indies.
“We apologise to the members of the public for the challenges that they faced, but we are very happy to see people coming out because it shows the level of interest, and this is a tremendous first day of operations.
“People want to be part of this event and they are participating meaningfully. We are very happy about that. We will put everything in place that needs to be put in place for our customers, our fans, who are the biggest supporters of the games,” Spooner said in an interview with Barbados Today.
“So far, the atmosphere has been amazing; there has been a lot of attention to the tournament globally, it is literally out of this world. We had the launch of the amazing anthem and the music video with Sean Paul and Kes, two of the best and most visible global artists in the region. We are very happy with that aspect of how things are going. The preparations of the fields and pitches have also been good, obviously, there is still work to be done as we are a month away, but we are where we want to be,” he added.
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