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Michael Carberry, the Hampshire and former England batsman, has been diagnosed with a cancerous tumour after having felt unwell in recent days

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jul-2016Michael Carberry, the Hampshire and former England batsman, has been diagnosed with a cancerous tumour after having felt unwell in recent days.Carberry was left out of Hampshire’s County Championship match against Warwickshire this week and Dale Benkenstein, the Hampshire coach, said it was so that he could undergo tests.A Hampshire statement on Thursday evening said: “Following recent reports about his health and now that he has spoken fully to his family, friends and team-mates, Hampshire can confirm that after a brief period of feeling unwell, a specialist has determined that Michael Carberry has a tumour that is cancerous. Further tests will be undertaken before the relevant treatment commences.”He is grateful for the messages of support that he has received and hopes that he can focus on his treatment whilst the privacy of those close to him is respected.”After Hampshire’s T20 Blast against Glamorgan, Giles White, the director of cricket, said: “It is terrible news, we are in shock. Our thoughts are with Carbs and his family at the moment. He found out a couple of days ago. It has been a tough couple of days for him the past few days and hopefully he gets through this. We will stand by him all the way through to help him and support him in any way we can.”Six years ago, Carberry suffered potentially life-threatening blood clots in one of his lungs. He has to take medication to control the condition, which emerged after he had suffered attacks of breathlessness while fielding and batting. He was diagnosed in November 2010 and did not play again until July of the following year.Rod Bransgrove, the Hampshire chairman, said: “Michael has been part of the Hampshire Cricket family for 10 years and on behalf of everyone at and associated with the club, I would like to send him and his family our very best wishes at this very difficult time. ‘Carbs’ has taken on and beaten serious illness before and we will be doing all we can to make sure he does the same again this time.”

Bulawayo’s Queens Sports Club will host its first Test in almost five years when New Zealand tour Zimbabwe in July-August 2016

Firdose Moonda16-Jun-2016Bulawayo’s Queens Sports Club will host its first Test in almost five years when New Zealand tour Zimbabwe in July-August 2016. The venue is scheduled to host both Tests on the tour, which start on July 28 and August 6 respectively.The last Test played at the Queens Sports Club was also between Zimbabwe and New Zealand, in November 2011, and was a thriller which New Zealand won by 34 runs.Since then, Harare Sports Club has been the preferred venue for Zimbabwe’s home Tests, mostly because of financial considerations. With most of Zimbabwe’s players based in Harare and most international flights landing in Harare, accommodation and transport costs are minimised by staging matches there.In 2013, Bangladesh were due to play a Test in Bulawayo after their Harare fixture but, in a cost-cutting measure, the second game was staged in Harare as well. Moreover, at the time, Queens Sports Club was understood to have been so poorly maintained that it would not have been ready to host a Test.The ground has since hosted 17 ODIs, including matches against Bangladesh, India, Afghanistan and South Africa, and four T20s. It will also host the second of two four-day games between South Africa A and Zimbabwe A prior to the New Zealand tour.New Zealand are due to spend a significant part of the next two months in southern Africa. They are holding a camp in Johannesburg from July 11, before traveling to Zimbabwe on July 20. They will play a three-day warm-up match and two Tests there as well as two Tests in South Africa.

Paul Collingwood’s Durham side won a grand game against Lancashire at Southport – and loved it so much that when the match was over they did not want to leave

Paul Edwards at Southport19-Jul-2016
by two wickets.
ScorecardPaul Collingwood’s Durham loved a return to cricket’s roots•Getty Images

This game ended with small eruptions of blue and yellow joy in front of the pavilion and on the railway side of Trafalgar Road. They were accompanied a larger and more boisterous outburst of triumph from Durham’s players in the dugout as Chris Rushworth cover-drove a Kyle Jarvis half-volley to the boundary, thus placing a seal on Durham’s two-wicket victory.But, no, the occasion in its proper sense did not end there. For Paul Collingwood and his players later threw their bags on the coach that had arrived to take them home and told the driver they were staying in Southport. They played cricket with some of Southport and Birkdale most junior players on the outfield and one just wished that Colin Graves, the chairman of the ECB, had been there to see it. Look, one could have said, this is what can happen when you take four-day cricket back to its roots. Now, would you like a pint, Colin?Having been invited to Southport the Durham players did not overstay their welcome. They won the match, had a few drinks and regaled the Southport and Birkdale members with “Blaydon Races”, many, many verses of it, and then “American Pie” and “I’m Gonna Be”.On a golden evening when players made common cause with those who watched them, photographs were taken amid the rich choruses. It made a wonderful tuneful conclusion to the sweetest of weeks. Then the Durham players asked if they could come back to Southport next year.Suddenly summer is in full sail and she has a following wind.Of course the eagerness of Durham’s players to return may be something to do with the fact of their victory. Yet Lancashire’s players were also deeply appreciative of everything that this outground experience had offered them and they will certainly return for the county has a three-year staging agreement at Trafalgar Road.All spectators can hope is that the match is as stuffed with delights as the 2016 game managed to be. The final day began with the visitors needing 247 to win and when Collingwood’s side were 170 for 2, it looked that this might be a match to deviate from the pattern of damp-palmed tension which had characterised games between these sides.Even when Jack Burnham was leg before to a full length ball from Simon Kerrigan, few reckoned the match was about to be blown off course. After all, Burnham had made 52 and he had looked increasingly comfortable as he lifted both Steven Croft and Kerrigan for sixes.Lancashire did not look like taking wickets. “Bang, bang, bang,” said the players on the ground as they encouraged each other. But it did not happen. Then Keaton Jennings, after cutting and pulling his way to 82 off 140 balls in this season when even warm-ups are welcome preludes to success, skied a pull off Tom Smith. The wicketkeeper, Tom Moores, tottered under it, shielded his eyes and clung on. In Smith’s next over Michael Richardson perished down the leg side. 175 for 5. Ho hum.Enter Durham’s captain to warm and respectful applause.For all his 40 years, his 68 Tests and his trademark jig-and-squat as he goes out to bat Paul Collingwood still marches to the wicket with the air of a no-nonsense PE teacher on the way to sort out trouble in the playground. You know the sort, the type who announces himself with: “I don’t care who started it but I know who’s going to finish it.”For nigh on two decades Collingwood has been playing this sort of role in Durham cricket, ending collapses, calming mayhem. But not on this occasion. For he was pinned on the back foot by Smith having made only 4, and when the same bowler had Paul Coughlin quite brilliantly caught by Moores diving to his right, Durham were 195 for 7, still 52 short of victory. This glorious match was back in the hazard.Moores’s third catch was his best but in its way hardly better than that mighty skier which he could hardly see but still pouched to remove Jennings. For his part, Smith was in the middle of an eight-over spell in which he took four wickets for 12 runs and would finish with five for 25.But it was another 19-year-old in this game filled with promising young cricketers who then share in the stand which all but decided the match. Until he took a couple of wickets on the third afternoon, Adam Hickey had enjoyed – or not enjoyed – a quiet first-class debut, Now, he walked out to join Ben Stokes, who had already deposited Simon Kerrigan over the railway line and into Dover Road.As Hickey later explained, the two batsmen calmed things down before tea before going on the attack when the players returned. In truth, by this stage, with Durham on 197 for 7, the spectators needed the tea break as much as the players. On the resumption Stokes hit two more sixes over deep midwicket off Kerrigan and Hickey lifted Kyle Jarvis onto the roof of the pavilion with a much mightier blow.Steven Croft rotated his bowlers but the game was gone. Or was it? Suddenly Hickey called Stokes for a quick single and the England all-rounder was run out for 36 at the bowler’s end. Four runs needed. Rushworth dealt with business and another county match at Trafalgar Road was over.And all this drama followed an morning session which was as tense as was expected. Lancashire savoured the first success as early as the sixth ball of the day when Mark Stoneman played across the line to one from Jarvis which pitched middle and leg only to hold its line and take him on the pad. Durham responded by taking 26 off Nathan Buck’s four overs, forcing Croft to call Smith into the attack.Another good fourth-day crowd was held by the cricket and the ground grew in stillness broken only by the action in the middle. The houses on Harrod Drive became such as might be painted by Hopper, the trees as by Pissarro at Osny or Pontoise.Necessity, though, benefited Lancashire as Smith squared up Scott Borthwick, whose previous three innings against Lancashire had been 134, 103 not out and 64. The left-hander was caught in the gully by Alviro Petersen for 28 so that more or less qualified as under-achievement.Failures of any sort have been thin on the ground this extraordinary week. And the thing is that while Southport and Birkdale may be very special, it is not unique. There are many clubs who would welcome first-class counties and all they are looking for is the chance to put on a show.Outground cricket is enjoyed by spectators and appreciated by players. Amid the entirely understandable desire to maximise the revenue from other formats, someone should think a little more about taking the game back to the people who are its lifeblood.

Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has said Kusal Mendis’ 176 in Pallekele was the performance upon which the series against Australia pivoted

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Colombo17-Aug-2016Sri Lanka captain Angelo Mathews has said Kusal Mendis’ 176 in Pallekele was the performance upon which the series against Australia pivoted.Mendis had come to the crease with Sri Lanka still 80 runs behind, and already two second-innings wickets down. But his faultless innings spurred a middle-order resurgence, and Sri Lanka posted a score of 353, on a quickly wearing track. Australia fell well short of the target of 268. Sri Lanka then won the Galle Test in under three days, and were dominant through the back end of the SSC match.”The key point I thought was Kusal Mendis’ innings – that was the turnaround for the whole series after getting all out for 117 at Pallekele,” Mathews said. “It was a special effort by him to get us on to a winning track. From there onwards it really kicked off. The confidence levels were sky high from there. We worked very hard and actually we worked harder than the first two Tests ahead of the third Test as we were desperate to finish this 3-0.”Despite having top-scored in each of the first two Tests, Mendis was the second-highest run-scorer in the series, surpassed by 24-year-old Dhananjaya de Silva, who collected 325 runs at an average of 65. Mendis, however, had only scored one first-class century before this series, and had been picked almost solely on potential, when he initially made the Test team last October.”It’s just pure talent, with the young batsmen,” Mathews said. “I suppose Dhananjaya has played a bit of first-class cricket, but Kusal Mendis hasn’t. We’ve got to take that chance with some people sometimes, and it’s paid off. You can see the way they batted in extreme conditions – it was turning square. They had Nathan Lyon, Jon Holland, and Steve O’Keefe in the first game. Mitchell Starc has been outstanding in the last three or four weeks as well. The calmness and composure of Dhananjaya at No. 7 was great. He handled that pressure well. Kusal Perera also played some brisk knocks, so the future is bright.”Rangana Herath, however, was Sri Lanka’s key performer in the series. He claimed 28 wickets at an average of 12.75. Only Muttiah Muralitharan has taken more wickets for Sri Lanka in a single series – against Zimbabwe in 2001. Herath had also been visibly hampered by a groin injury during the SSC Test, in which he took 13 for 145.”Rangana was fantastic,” Mathews said. “He was bowling off one leg, but one leg was enough for him. He got hit while batting and then he had a groin strain. He couldn’t run and he couldn’t jump. He was just landing the ball on one leg, and he is unbelievable. He has taken 28 wickets in the series and is one of the best I have seen. The batsmen are having a nightmare facing him no matter how well they play spin. He has been a great team man as well.”Herath himself said that he did not envision a whitewash against Australia, prior to the series. He echoed Mathews’ praise of Mendis and de Silva, but also had encouraging words for left-arm wristspinner Lakshan Sandakan, who took nine wickets at an average of 23 across the three Tests – though, he did not get a breakthrough at the SSC.”Sandakan had a good game at Pallekele,” Herath said. “What I believe is, that when you have three spinners, all three are not going to get wickets in the same game. It will vary. He is a very good bowler. He has to also learn a few things – like control. I am pretty sure that he will learn quickly, and become a very good bowler.”

Jake Ball defied cramp and sapping humidity to mark his one-day debut with record figures of 5 for 51, as England snatched an extraordinary 21-run victory in the first ODI against Bangladesh

The Report by Andrew Miller07-Oct-2016 England 309 for 8 (Stokes 101, Buttler 63, Duckett 60) beat Bangladesh 278 (Kayes 112, Shakib 79 Ball 5-51) by 21 runs

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJake Ball defied cramp and sapping humidity to mark his one-day debut with record figures of 5 for 51, as England snatched an extraordinary 21-run victory in the first ODI against Bangladesh at Mirpur.Powered by a brilliant century from Imrul Kayes, and with Shakib Al Hasan providing experienced support in a fifth-wicket stand of 118, Bangladesh appeared to be marching up a mountainous run-chase of 310, and living up to their newly minted reputation as a tough nut to crack in one-day cricket.But then, with victory in sight, Bangladesh suffered a throwback to their fragile old days to squander their last six wickets for 17 runs in 39 balls. The collapse of their resolve mirrored that of the atmosphere at the National Stadium in Mirpur, where thousands of fans had put aside the inconvenience of a kilometre-wide exclusion zone to cheer on a side that has not lost a home ODI series for two years and counting.For more than 91 overs of the 97.5 in the match, the mood in the ground had been akin to a national celebration, as Imrul confirmed the richness of his current form with an astounding display of clean hitting, particularly through the leg side, to take command of what looked certain to be their highest successful run-chase against a senior Test nation.His first scoring shot was the most startling statement of intent of the whole match – a murderous second-ball pull over midwicket off Chris Woakes that embedded itself so deep in an advertising hoarding that an BCB official had to reach through the hole to retrieve it. On his watch, there could be only one winner, as he brought up his hundred from 105 balls with his 11th four, before passing the baton to Shakib, whose volley of five fours and six in 12 balls seemed to have torched the asking-rate.But then, with the requirement a trifling 39 from 52 balls with six wickets still in hand, Shakib suffered a debilitating bout of cramp in his fingers, and, in a jolt of realism that popped the fans’ party mood in a trice, Ball capitalised to stunning effort. The very delivery after receiving treatment from the physio, Shakib miscued a pull to David Willey at midwicket to depart for 79 – and one ball later, the stands were in full panic mode as Mosaddek Hossain was bowled off the splice by a perfect lifting nipbacker.Imrul was still in situ at this stage, but having also cramped up late in his innings, he urgently needed someone else to stay with him and keep the boundaries coming. The captain, Mashrafe Mortaza, was unable to be that man – he guiltily grazed a loose cut to the keeper as Adil Rashid ripped an illegible legbreak out of the rough, moments after planting a seed of doubt with his googly, and the game was as good as over in Rashid’s next over, when Imrul charged out of his crease in desperate need of a boundary, and was stumped off a wide as Rashid speared the ball out of his reach.Next to go was Shafiul Islam – the hero of Bangladesh’s two-wicket win in the 2011 World Cup – who was run out without scoring, and victory was duly sealed from the penultimate ball of Ball’s spell, as Taskin Ahmed grazed an edge through to Jos Buttler, England’s stand-in captain, whose typically powerful 63 from 38 balls had earlier lifted his side to an imposing total of 309 for 8.Jake Ball finished the match and ended with a five-for•Getty Images

Ball himself could barely stand by the end of the match, and he was rightly named as Man of the Match after becoming the first England bowler to claim five wickets on debut. However, the foundations of England’s victory were laid by Ben Stokes, who anchored their innings with his maiden ODI hundred, and Ben Duckett, the day’s second debutant, whose 60 from 78 balls was a vital and mature contribution to an agenda-setting stand of 153.Stokes made 101 from exactly 100 balls – a performance that might pale statistically compared to some of the masterful feats of run-making in England’s ranks in recent months. However, given the brutality of the conditions – the humidity was measured at one stage at 90% – and his previous fallibility against spin, most notably on the tour of Sri Lanka in 2014, it was a formidable performance.It also began in some adversity, as he and Duckett came together following a collapse of 3 for 21 in 31 balls. James Vince had once again looked fluent without entirely convincing in his 16 from 20 balls, and when Jason Roy and Jonny Bairstow departed in quick succession, the latter to a third-ball run-out, England were 63 for 3 in the 13th over and in need of some shoring-up.Bangladesh used seven bowlers in all, with the third seamer, Taskin Ahmed, held back until the second half of the innings as Mashrafe leaned heavily and predictably on his quartet of slow men. Aside from their drip-drip accuracy, the speed with which they burned through their overs was especially telling. There was little opportunity to think between deliveries, but Stokes was in the mood to trust his instinct, particularly on the reverse sweep, with which he picked off four of his eight fours.Duckett, meanwhile, was quite content to play the anchorman. After his eye-popping scoring feats for Northamptonshire and the Lions this summer, this was all about bedding into the international arena, and he passed his first test with aplomb.His five fours were timely pressure releases, including one cute scoop over the wicketkeeper’s head off a Taskin short ball, but after reaching his half-century from 63 balls, his battery visibly went flat in the final minutes of his stay. He managed one run from his last nine deliveries before missing a leg-stump full-toss to be bowled round his pads.By the end of their fielding stint, however, Bangladesh were visibly tetchy after letting several crucial chances slip through their fingers – most tellingly, two lives in the space of five balls to Stokes, on 69 and 71 respectively – a low drill to mid-on and an ugly skew to deep cover.Inevitably, the man best placed to cash in in such a moment was Buttler, who arrived at the crease with eight overs remaining and a licence to go loco, but it was a tribute to the efforts of his team-mates higher up the order that he was initially forced to rein in his aggression.In fact, it wasn’t until the back end of the 47th over that Buttler flicked on the Beast Mode. After 25 runs, including a solitary boundary, from his first 26 deliveries, he signalled his change of tempo with consecutive sixes off Shakib, before two more fours and an inside-out six over extra cover off Shafiul completed a startling 33-ball fifty, which became 63 from 38 balls all told.It wasn’t apparent then, but that switch of tempo would prove to be the difference between the sides in the final analysis. That, of course, and the temperament required just to get the job done, come what may. Bangladesh have come a long, long way in the past couple of years, and their proud home record is still intact for now. But, much as was the case in their devastating collapse against India at the World T20, there remains a fragility at their core that can crack in an instant.

Fifteen-year-old legspinner Rachel Trenaman is set to line-up alongside some of cricket’s biggest names after she was a surprise selection in the Governor-General’s XI to meet South Africa on Sunday

Brittany Mitchell09-Nov-2016Fifteen-year-old legspinner Rachel Trenaman is set to line-up alongside some of cricket’s biggest names after she was a surprise selection in the Governor-General’s XI to meet South Africa on Sunday.The Wagga Wagga teenager, who signed with Women’s Big Bash League side Sydney Thunder in September, is the youngest player named in the squad and joins some of the country’s most talented players, including Ellyse Perry, Beth Mooney and Lauren Cheatle.In its second year, the Governor-General’s XI was inspired by the traditional Prime Minister’s XI match and will see some of Australia’s best young female players clash with a touring side.The match will give Southern Stars players Perry and Mooney an early look at South Africa ahead of their five-match series, while it will also be Perry’s first taste of captaincy at an international level with the allrounder taking on the lead role.”The selectors are looking forward to seeing how the next generation of Australian cricketers fare against a strong South African side,” national selector Shawn Flegler said.”Rachel Trenaman is an exciting young player and a game like this is a great opportunity for her to play with, and against, some of the best players in the world.”The match-up also gives 18-year-old Cheatle the opportunity to push her case for selection after missing selection in the 13-player Southern Stars squad for the first three matches of the ODI series.Governor-General’s XI squad: Ellyse Perry (captain, NSW/Sixers), Sarah Beard (Australian Defence Force), Sophie Molineux (Vic/Renegades), Beth Mooney (Qld/Heat), Tahlia McGrath (SA/Strikers), Heather Graham (WA/Scorchers), Ashleigh Gardner (NSW/Sixers), Rachel Trenaman (NSW/Thunder), Amanda Wellington (SA/Strikers), Lauren Cheatle (NSW/Thunder), Piepa Cleary (WA/Scorchers), Belinda Vakarewa (NSW/Thunder)

JP Duminy and Dean Elgar batted through almost two sessions on day three, scoring centuries as they ground Australia down in the Perth heat

The Report by Brydon Coverdale05-Nov-2016
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:15