Liam Livingstone admitted he has been “crying out for” an innings of substance after his ODI-best 95 not out from 78 balls lifted England to a series-levelling victory over New Zealand.
England stumbled to 55 for five at the Ageas Bowl but were bailed out by Livingstone, who shared a restorative 48-run stand with Moeen Ali before putting on a decisive 112 in 77 balls with Sam Curran.
The Cumbrian might have fallen just short of a maiden ODI ton but, having registered his first fifty of the summer at domestic or international level in Friday’s series opener at Cardiff after a winter in which he battled ankle and knee injuries, the 30-year-old is finding some fluency ahead of next month’s World Cup.
His innings, remarkably the first time he has batted for 50 deliveries or more at international level, ushered England to 226 for seven, enough for a 79-run victory after New Zealand were skittled for 147.
“It’s weird, I’ve won (T20) World Cup (last November) but probably had the worst year of my career for form and had two bad injuries,” Livingstone said.
“This is something I’ve been crying out for. Unfortunately, there’s a reason why there’s not many lower-order hitters that have mastered the art of the game – it’s a pretty difficult role to do.
“If you get on a roll, it’s pretty nice. But you get yourself in a bit of a rut, it’s quite hard to get out of. It’s probably the first time in my career where I’ve had two months of struggling.
“I’ve put in a lot of work behind the scenes to try and go back to knowing what I can do and that’s win games for England. Thankfully I’ve done that.”
After being blown away in Cardiff on Friday, this was an impressive response from England, especially after losing Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Ben Stokes within the space of eight Trent Boult deliveries.
In his 100th ODI, the left-arm seamer exploited bowler-friendly conditions after rain had delayed the start time and led to the contest being reduced to 34 overs per side at Southampton and England needed every ounce of their batting depth to dig them out of the perilous position of eight for three.
Livingstone strode out at number seven after just 12.1 overs and was strong all around the ground, while he took a particular liking to Tim Southee, with six of his 10 boundaries – nine fours and a six – coming off the New Zealand Test captain.
Livingstone recognised he owed a debt of gratitude to Curran, who was a useful foil as he contributed 42 off 35 deliveries before lapping to short third in the final over.
“I don’t think consolidation is a word we use in the dressing room,” Livingstone said. “We’ve just got to see what we think is best in that situation. If in doubt, take the aggressive option.
“We knew it wasn’t going to be the easiest pitch but it was just about getting to a score we felt we could defend.
“My initial role was to just get used to the conditions and bat with Mo and then try and put on a partnership with Sammy.
“To have someone like Sam Curran batting at eight in any team in world cricket is pretty nice. Something we pride ourselves on is the depth we’ve got, we’ve got a lot of batting for days like this when things don’t go right up top.
“It’s a pretty rare occasion we end up 50 for five because of the quality we’ve got in our team. It’s always nice that when it does happen, you can put your hand up and win a game for England.”
New Zealand were going along nicely on 111 for three but Reece Topley’s dismissal of captain Tom Latham induced a collapse, which saw the Black Caps lose their last seven wickets for 36 runs in 39 balls.
Topley, whose dismissal of Latham was his first wicket in five ODIs, then snared middle-order duo Glenn Phillips and Rachin Ravindra in his next over to finish with three for 27 in seven impressive overs.
Daryl Mitchell, whose brutal unbeaten ton set up an eight-wicket win at Sophia Gardens, overturned being given out on nought to bludgeon 57 off 52 balls.
But he became Moeen Ali’s 100th ODI wicket which saw New Zealand slide quickly to defeat in the second of four matches as they were all out in 26.5 overs.
“I thought our bowlers were exceptional,” Livingstone added. “They learnt from how New Zealand bowled and pretty much nailed the game plan.”
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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