England’s next generation offered a promising glimpse of their white-ball future as Will Jacks, Sam Hain and Rehan Ahmed all starred in a 48-run win over a full-strength Ireland.
Jacks’ 94 off 88 balls contained seven fours and four sixes, contrasting with a more understated 89 off 82 deliveries from Hain, but the duo underpinned England’s 334 for eight in the second Metro Bank ODI.
Teenage leg-spinner Ahmed collected four for 54 as Ireland were all out for 286 in 46.4 overs at Trent Bridge against England’s understudies, for whom Phil Salt was the most experienced in his 15th ODI.
Ahead of this de facto series opener after a washout at Headingley earlier this week, England’s XI contained a combined 38 ODI appearances – compared with Ireland’s 720 – as the hosts made use of their deep pool of reserves, with their World Cup stars resting ahead of travelling to India next week.
Hain took top billing among the four England debutants but George Scrimshaw had fluctuating fortunes, bowling six front foot no-balls in his first two overs before rebounding with figures of 8.4-0-66-3.
Jamie Smith and Tom Hartley had more modest outings but this was still an impressive display amid an expected changing of the guard after the World Cup, while Jacks’ dazzling innings may have given the selectors a nudge about being on standby should injury befall the main group in the subcontinent.
Tipped as the successors to Jason Roy and Alex Hales, Jacks and Salt paid a fitting tribute to the pair who revolutionised opening the batting for England in the shorter formats, feasting on Ireland’s fruitless pursuit of early swing with a rash of fours to bring up the 50 stand in the sixth over.
Jacks sumptuously drove the expensive Josh Little for three successive fours but Craig Young found a better length, drawing the splice of Salt’s bat on 28 before stand-in captain Zak Crawley was lbw for a two-ball duck in his first England innings since leading their run-charts in this summer’s Ashes.
England ended the powerplay with Jacks dismissively swiping Barry McCarthy for six as he and Ben Duckett steadily rebuilt from Young’s double strike.
Put down on 44, Jacks went to fifty in style by clearing extra cover off Andy McBrine, who also went the distance off Duckett.
Fellow spinner Dockrell had more luck as Duckett paddled to short fine-leg on 48 to end a run-a-ball 102-run stand with Jacks, who slog swept the slow left-armer for his fourth six to move into the 90s.
Attempting a repeat to reach three figures in Dockrell’s next over, Jacks top-edged to Andy Balbirnie, who took a steepler a few feet in from the deep midwicket boundary.
England added just 140 in the final 20 overs but 15 of those came with Hain as the only frontline batter left after Smith holed out.
Hain, whose List A average of 57.96 is the second highest ever, had a single from his first 11 balls and was put down by a diving Harry Tector from his 12th but he gradually started to find rhythm.
Hain used his feet well to offset the bowlers’ lengths in an unobtrusive 52-ball fifty and while there were few big hits – he managed just eight fours in total – he was responsible for England going past 300. Needing 11 off the last over for his century, he miscued McCarthy to mid-off.
While England had their highest score in ODIs against Ireland, the tourists were aided by Scrimshaw’s repeated front-foot faults.
There were four no-balls in his first over in an England shirt and two, plus a wide, in his next as he leaked an eye-watering 35 having sent down just 11 legal deliveries.
When he drew Balbirnie’s outside edge with his 12th, Scrimshaw forlornly turned round to Rod Tucker after Ben Duckett snaffled the chance but the umpire gave a thumb’s up and patted him on his shoulder.
From the next ball, Paul Stirling, whose 250 List A appearances before Saturday was just 29 fewer than England’s XI combined, chopped on for 25 off 17 balls after Matthew Potts found lavish inward movement.
Ireland were up with the rate but wickets fell at regular intervals, with Ahmed into the act when the dangerous Tector was out for 39 after skewing to a backtracking Jacks.
Googlies from Ahmed snared McBrine and Mark Adair, while the youngest member of England’s XI had his fourth from his penultimate delivery as Dockrell clothed another wrong’un to Salt.
From 188 for eight, England were unable to finish proceedings quickly as Ireland’s last three batters McCarthy (41), Young (40 not out) and Little (29) all recorded ODI bests. But Scrimshaw took the final wicket as Little slammed to long-on to banish thoughts of a remarkable Ireland comeback.
Sinclair grabs 5-44 as honors even at stumps on day one of deciding third unofficial “Test” against South Africa “A”
Kevin Sinclair was the star of day one of the deciding third unofficial “Test” between the West Indies “A” and South Africa “A” at the Manguang Oval in Bloemfontein on Tuesday.
South Africa “A” were able to post 274 in 67.4 overs after winning the toss. Khaya Zondo led the way with a well-compiled 70 off 114 balls including seven fours and two sixes.
Captain Neil Brand also showed some good form with a 93-ball 62 while Zubayr Hamza made 30.
Sinclair was excellent with the ball, picking up 5-44 off 14.4 overs, already his fourth five-wicket haul of his 20-match first-class career.
Shamar Joseph and Shermon Lewis provided good support with 3-65 from 15 overs and 2-68 from 13 overs, respectively.
The West Indians ended the day 17-1 off eight overs, trailing by 257. Tagenarine Chanderpaul was the batsman dismissed for 3. Zachary McCaskie (12) and Kirk McKenzie (2) are the batsmen at the crease.
The teams are tied at 1-1 in the series. West Indies “A” won the first game by one wicket and South Africa “A” won the second by 232 runs.
Full Scores:
South Africa “A” 274 off 67.4 overs (Khaya Zondo 70, Neil Brand 62, Zubayr Hamza 30, Kevin Sinclair 5-44, Shamar Joseph 3-65, Shermon Lewis 2-68)
West Indies “A” 17-1 off 8 overs
Sophie Ecclestone set for England return in T20 opener in India – Heather Knight
Sophie Ecclestone will make her England comeback in Wednesday’s T20 series opener against India, with captain Heather Knight declaring the spinner “fit and firing” after four months out.
The world number one white-ball bowler needed surgery after dislocating her shoulder in August while taking part in the Hundred, missing the home series against Sri Lanka and the Women’s Big Bash League in Australia.
But she stepped up her recovery during England’s recent training camp in Oman and is ready to return to action at Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.
“Sophie has missed a bit of cricket with the injury she had but she’s going to be fit and firing, so I’m looking forward to seeing her bowl,” Knight said.
“I don’t think bowling will be an issue, she’s been doing really well, but fielding there might be a bit of nervousness. I’ve had injuries myself where it’s about getting over trusting your body.
“I’m sure in the heat of battle Sophie will be fine, she’s tracking really well in training, diving around and things like that, but we’ll keep a close eye on her because she’s obviously a key player for us.”
England have not toured India since 2019 but Knight was among a handful of players who played in the country’s inaugural Women’s Premier League and believes it is the perfect place for her side to develop.
“It feels a long time since we’ve been to India, but now the WPL is a staple in the calendar there’s going to be a lot of cricket here for English players,” she said.
“I always feel I learn a lot about my game playing in Indian conditions. It really tests you as a cricketer in terms of skill level, how you deal with the noise, the heat and the other things that tend to happen in Indian tours.
“It’s a really good place to accelerate development and I’m excited to see how we cope with it.
“I’m really excited to see what sort of crowd we get too. Hopefully we get a few in after the WPL earlier in the year and we can silence the crowd, if there is one.”
England have one doubt for the series opener, with Charlie Dean set to sit out due to illness.
Kevin Wickham and Academy bowlers combine to crush Emerging Ireland by 432 runs at Coolidge
As was expected, West Indies Academy inflicted a soul-crushing defeat on Emerging Island in their four-day match at the Coolidge Cricket Ground on Wednesday to sweep the series 2-0. Having been set a nigh-impossible target of 575 runs, the tourists wilted under the pressure and we bowled out for 143, thus losing by a mammoth 432 runs.
Having resumed from their overnight total of 172-4, for an already significant lead of 432 runs, West Indies Academy, spurred by Kevin Wickham’s unbeaten 105 and contributions of 32 from Nyeem Young and 22 from McKenny Clarke, eventually declared on 321-8.
The spark in the dark for Emerging Ireland was the haul of 5-75 by Tom Hayes, who got some support from Michael Frost whose two wickets came at the cost of 136 runs from 32 overs.
With a target of almost 600 runs, Emerging Ireland were never up to the task against a rested and confident West Indies Academy bowling attack led by Joshua Bishop who snagged 4-36 and Clarke, who bowled miserly for 2-16 from six overs.
Lower-order batter Liam McCarty offered the most resistance with a knock of 35 not out. Otherwise, opener Stephen Doheny was the only other batter who got into the 20s, with 23.
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