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Gloucestershire dominated the final day of their LV= County Championship game at Cheltenham, beating Leicestershire by 155 runs to register back-to-back wins in a season at the picturesque college ground for the first time since 1998

ECB/PA18-Jul-2015
ScorecardCraig Miles took three wickets to help Gloucestershire complete victory•Getty Images

Gloucestershire dominated the final day of their LV= County Championship game at Cheltenham, beating Leicestershire by 155 runs to register back-to-back wins in a season at the picturesque college ground for the first time since 1998.Having set the visitors 325 to win a four-day game for only the second time this summer, Gloucestershire were never in any danger of losing a contest – and they finally wrapped up victory shortly before tea.Leicestershire, who are still rooted firmly to the foot of Division Two, have now lost eight Championship matches.The visitors resumed on their overnight total of 11 without loss – but soon found themselves in trouble when Angus Robson and Ned Eckersley departed off successive balls from Craig Miles.Robson had his off stump removed by Miles off the first ball of the 13th over and Eckersley edged the seamer to Michael Klinger at slip, off the next delivery.Mark Cosgrove and Matt Boyce dropped anchor as Leicestershire swapped their run chase for survival. However, the introduction of Kieran Noema-Barnett brought about the downfall of Boyce, leg before wicket for 22 at 61 for 3 – and in the next over, Cosgrove was trapped lbw by Benny Howell’s third ball of the innings.To compound a bad morning for Leicestershire, Greg Smith edged James Fuller to Chris Dent at second slip to leave Leicestershire struggling at 77 for 5 at lunch.If the morning session had been rewarding for Gloucestershire, the afternoon session was equally impressive, despite the efforts of Aadil Ali and Ben Raine. The pair came together when Leicestershire wicketkeeper Lewis Hill was brilliantly caught at gully, by sub Miles Hammond, off the bowling of Miles.Ali, who made his Championship debut against Kent last week, led the way with Raine providing stern support until a slice of misfortune brought to an end their 54-run partnership for the seventh wicket.Having hit Jack Taylor for a straight six, over long-off, Ali’s next straight drive was deflected back onto the stumps at the non-striker’s end, by Taylor, with Raine stranded out of his crease. Ali added another six, over midwicket, to move on to 41, but off the next ball holed out to Fuller at mid-off.Jigar Naik followed next ball, caught at leg slip and though Charlie Shreck was dropped at slip by Klinger off Noema-Barnett in the 64th over, the game was over when Liam Norwell had Clint McKay caught behind for 18.

Hamilton Masakadza and Paul Stirling made it a short evening’s work for Sylhet Royals, who blazed to a six-wicket victory against Khulna Royal Bengals

The Report by Mohammad Isam23-Jan-2013
ScorecardHamilton Masakadza and Paul Stirling made it a short evening’s work for Sylhet Royals, who blazed to a six-wicket victory – their third in a row – against Khulna Royal Bengals. Their 78-run stand, which helped Royals to the highest Powerplay total of the BPL – 81 for 1 – came after the unlikely new-ball pair of Dirk Nannes and Sohag Gazi had produced identical figures to limit Royal Bengals.Nannes and Gazi both had figures of 2 for 20 from four overs, and Suhrawadi Shuvo took 1 for 22, making it only 62 runs off those 12 overs. Though Khulna tried to make up by adding 83 in the other eight overs, their total of 157 for 4 was modest. The Royals captain Mushfiqur Rahim also had a role to play: he took two superb catches, the first one breaking an important partnership between Riki Wessels and Daniel Harris. Wessels remained unbeaten on 63 off 44 balls, with four boundaries and a couple of slog-swept sixes.During the chase, Masakadza blasted Shapoor Zadran for a boundary and two sixes before Stirling finished the innings’ second over with two more boundaries to take 25 off it. Masakadza scored four boundaries in Farhad Reza’s next over, before leaving it to Stirling to pick up four sixes in the next two overs off Nabil Samad and Sanjamul Islam, who was hit for three sixes in the space of four balls in his first over.Stirling missed a straight one from Nabil before Masakadza was cleaned up by a beauty from Zadran, this time coming from around the wicket. By then, however, the Royals needed to score at four an over in the next nine overs to complete the win, which they eventually did with 22 balls to spare.The Royal Bengals are bottom in the league after losing their third game in a row, while the Royals are level with Dhaka Gladiators on six points at the top of the table.

MS Dhoni said he will decide in 2013 if he will take part in the next World Cup two years later

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Dec-2011India captain MS Dhoni has said the chances of him being available to defend India’s World Cup title in 2015 aren’t guaranteed, and that he will take a call two years prior to the tournament in Australia-New Zealand. Dhoni, who has been around since 2005, has been captaining India in all three formats, in addition to his role as wicketkeeper-batsman.”If you see 2015, three and a half years to go, I don’t really know where I will stand. Everything needs to go off well and then close to 2013, I will have to take a call whether I can be 100% available for the 2015 World Cup,” Dhoni told the news channel .”Because at the end of the day you don’t want a wicketkeeper part of the side who has not played at least 100-odd games – at least close to 80-100 games going into the World Cup. So that’s a call that needs to be taken. But if everything goes off well, 2013 end will be the time where we will have to carefully study the body and see what can be done.” Dhoni was speaking to after receiving the news channel’s Indian of the Year – Sports award for 2011.India’s packed schedule in recent years, with the IPL thrown in, has compelled Dhoni to prioritise and take adequate rest before important tours. This year, he skipped the one-dayers in the West Indies after an exhausting World Cup and the IPL, as well as West Indies’ return series (ODIs) in India which concluded recently. Parthiv Patel took over the gloves in both.Dhoni’s trophy cabinet in limited-overs cricket includes the World Cup, the 2007 World Twenty20, plus two IPL titles and the 2010 Twenty20 Champions League. The 2011 World Cup remains his most significant achievement till date, smashing an unbeaten 91 in a tense final against Sri Lanka in Mumbai, sealing the victory with a six.The normally phlegmatic Dhoni didn’t hide his emotions, as television cameras managed to capture scenes of several of his team-mates openly crying with joy. Reliving the moment, Dhoni admitted that he too cried, though away from the camera.”Yes I did (cry) you don’t really have footage of that,” Dhoni said. “It’s very difficult to control an emotion like that. I was controlling it, quickly. I wanted to go up to the dressing room and I see two of my players crying and running onto me. Fortunately, all of a sudden, I started crying and I looked up and there was a huddle around me.”It was one of the biggest things for us as Indian cricketers. The last time we won the proper 50-over version was 28 years back. So most of the people part of the side wanted to win the World Cup and as soon as we got into a position where we saw the World Cup coming into our dressing room, that was the time when emotions started to flow. If you see before the post-match presentation, almost each and every player cried.”Dhoni’s unconventional batting style, full of improvised strokes, has won him plenty of attention over the years. One of his patented strokes is the ‘helicopter shot’, which he sometimes employs to dig out yorker length deliveries, in which he twirls the bat above his head in the follow-through.He said it originated from his tennis-ball cricket days in Jharkhand.”We played on a 16-18 yard wicket with a tennis ball and most of the times the bowler tried to push in a yorker,” Dhoni said. “That was the kind of shot that you needed to hit it for a six because in tennis ball cricket, you don’t have to middle it. Even if you are using the bottom-most part of the bat, if you hit it quite well, it always goes over the boundary.”I think I became better. I never practiced it, I used it in the games. And not to forget, I’ve quite often hit my left ankle doing that. Over the years you get better and better and I’ve seen a few other people trying to copy it.”

Jacques Kallis reached 100 faster than he has ever done in Tests and Hashim Amla pushed his Test average against India this year beyond 600 as South Africa ended the day 230 ahead with eight wickets remaining

The Bulletin by Siddarth Ravindran17-Dec-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Hashim Amla pushed his average against India this year over 600•Getty Images

South Africa had a near-perfect day in Centurion to move into a position of such dominance that, after just 125 overs of play in the Test, India will be as interested in the weather forecast as the scorecard for the remainder of the match. On a sunny second day at SuperSport Park, along with the clouds, the demons on the pitch went missing, and South Africa’s batsmen capitalised. Jacques Kallis reached 100 faster than he has ever done in Tests and Hashim Amla pushed his Test average against India this year beyond 600 as South Africa ended the day 230 ahead with eight wickets remaining.

Smart Stats

• India’s 136 was their fourth score below 150 in Tests in South Africa. All three previous scores came on the 1996-97 tour.

• Morne Morkel’s 5 for 20 is his fourth five-wicket haul and best bowling performance in Tests.

• The century partnership between Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen was South Africa’s fourth for the opening wicket in Tests against India. Smith has been involved in two of them.

• Hashim Amla has scored 1030 runs against India in 10 Tests at an average of over 73. In his last four innings, he has scored a double-century and three centuries.

• Jacques Kallis scored his 38th century in Tests and fourth against India. Kallis is now third in the list of batsmen with the most centuries in Tests and just one hundred behind second-placed Ricky Ponting.

• Kallis’ strike-rate of 70.83 is the fourth-best among all his 100 plus scores in Tests.

• The double-century stand between Amla and Kallis was their second for the third wicket against India. It is also the 14th for the third wicket for South Africa. Kallis has been involved in nine of them.

India’s away record may have improved dramatically over the past decade but their performance so far in Centurion is reminiscent of the terrible travellers of the pre-Sourav Ganguly era. The South African openers, Graeme Smith and Alviro Petersen, made half-centuries to nearly equal India’s total on their own, before Amla and Kallis utterly demoralised the world’s No. 1 side with an unbroken 200-run stand.India’s vaunted batting order had been dismantled on the first day, and there was more punishment in store on the second morning as the South African openers added 111 without any trouble. Sreesanth and Ishant Sharma got the new ball to move, and though the batsmen swished-and-missed some times, there were no genuine chances through most of the morning.Petersen was scratchy early on, and it was Smith who did the bulk of the scoring in a watchful start. After six overs, South Africa had moved to 9 for 0 and the run-flow increased only after the introduction of the 19-year-old rookie Jaidev Unadkat. His third delivery was a gentle half-volley that was driven fluently past mid-off for four by Smith, and bowling in the late-120s, his bouncers were easy put-aways too.With Petersen also finding his touch, the run-rate began to rise, and Dhoni turned to spin in the hope of a breakthrough. Harbhajan Singh didn’t have the best of starts though, slapped for a couple of fours in his first over and then dispatched over midwicket for six in the next. Smith was using the cut effectively against Harbhajan until his downfall, minutes before lunch, when he top-edged a delivery that bounced extra.The second session began with Petersen stabbing a wide delivery past point for a boundary, and set the tone for another two hours of superiority as India looked woefully short of firepower. A lovely bunch of drives suggested Petersen was set for a second Test century before he walked on a very thin inside-edge to short leg.India were buoyed by the dismissal of the openers, but had very little to cheer during the rest of the day. Amla, with the confidence that comes from scoring a wagonload of runs, made a cavalier century, which lacked his customary serenity. In a rare spell where the South African batsmen were troubled, Harbhajan nearly had Amla caught behind after getting one to turn in sharply from outside off. The response from Amla was to swipe the next ball over midwicket for six. Amla kept looking to pull the quicks and paddle Harbhajan from outside off, while also indulging in his trademark cover drives and slashes past point.Keeping him company was Kallis, who was in an even more adventurous mood. Initially, he carted the part-time hit-me deliveries of Suresh Raina, depositing a couple over deep midwicket for sixes though there was a fielder for that shot. With the frontline bowlers not making an impact, Sachin Tendulkar was called on to bowl his all-sorts, which didn’t curb the runs either – 125 runs came in the 28 overs that were bowled in the second session.The battering continued after tea, Kallis and Amla picking up 130 off 32 overs. The punishing rate was maintained though there wasn’t too much high-risk batting, with the Indians regularly providing boundary balls. The closest India came to a wicket was a french-cut from Amla on 65. Otherwise, it was a lesson in run- accumulation. With the pitch easing up and the opposition waiting for the end of the day, Amla and Kallis displayed their appetite for big scores and batted India out of the match.Both batsman reached their hundreds towards the end of a flawless day which had been given the perfect start by Morne Morkel. He removed MS Dhoni with the third ball of the day – the Indian captain walking after being struck in front of middle stump. Morkel finished with career-best figures of 5 for 20, and India were bowled out for their overnight score of 136, their third-lowest total in South Africa.After much talk about an evenly matched top-of-the-table clash, the first two days in Centurion could scarcely have been more one-sided.

South Africa will bank on home advantage finally paying off against England with a pitch that will boost their chances of levelling the series in the final Test

Andrew McGlashan in Johannesburg10-Jan-2010South Africa will bank on home advantage finally paying off against England with a pitch that will boost their chances of levelling the series in the final Test at the Wanderers. After failing to take the visitors’ last wicket at Newlands, South Africa must win to avoid successive home series defeats, following last year’s loss to Australia, and are looking for a few favours.The pitch at Cape Town became slower as the match went on making the new ball a crucial period of each innings. However, the expectation is that the surface at Johannesburg will offer something for the quicks throughout after above average rainfall around the highveld in the last few weeks.The man in charge of producing the 22 yards is Chris Scott and he knows what South Africa are looking for. “Obviously they have to win the Test, they don’t want to lose the series. They are looking at a result wicket because they don’t want to end with another draw,” he told Cricinfo.The Test strip will be one of the surfaces that was used for the Champions Trophy in September, which provided considerable help for the quick bowlers. Scott expects similar conditions this week, but has ensured his main surfaces have been protected with no matches on them since the Champions Trophy.The Wanderers has staged a huge amount of cricket in the last 12 months, with Scott also having to produce surfaces for the IPL. His job has been made harder by a reduction in the number of pitches available down from six to four, which has meant a juggling act to get surfaces ready.”Last year, I lost two of my main pitches and they are out of commission for the whole season so everything has had to be squeezed on the others and it has been more of a challenge,” he said. “But I’ve kept the Test pitch protected, there hasn’t been any cricket on it since the Champions Trophy to allow them to recover.”They’ll be pretty much like the Champions Trophy I would say,” he added. “The pitches for the Champions Trophy were not accidental, I said before the tournament that the pitches would be more lively, but I had to have them that way because I needed to look after them because they were my Test and ODI surfaces. I had to nurture them because I only had the other two to fall back on.”Despite having produced a mass of pitches for one-day and Twenty20 cricket in recent months, it is still the skill of providing a Test strip that gives Scott most satisfaction.”I’ve always maintained that a Test wicket should live up to its name in that it’s a test between bat and ball, unlike one-day cricket where everything is so loaded towards the batsman that the bowlers almost have no chance,” he said.”I actually enjoy doing a Test wicket because it allows you to create something that is going to have a balance and I love seeing Test cricket in that sense. The bowlers have got something to work with, there’s a bit more grass on the pitch, and over five days – if it lasts that long – the pitch will deteriorate.”

Ireland needed just 18.3 overs on day five – with threat of rain looming – to close out the game

Ekanth10-Feb-2025Rain was the biggest threat Ireland faced when they came to the Queens Sports Club on day five. But in 18.3 overs, they wrapped up the one-off Test against Zimbabwe with a 63-run win. They needed to create seven chances for the last three wickets, and in the process completed their first hat-trick of Test wins in their ten-match history. It is the earliest point any team has earned a hat-trick of Test wins, bettering South Africa, who needed 14 matches.Matthew Humphreys converted his overnight four-for into a career-best 6 for 57, with Andy McBrine – his spin-bowling partner – closing out the game by knocking over Richard Ngarava with the new ball.Wessly Madhevere, Zimbabwe’s last ray of hope, battled through 195 balls for his 84. When his outside edge was beaten and stumps rattled by a quicker length ball from Humphreys, he could not drag himself out of the field, covering his face with his bat in despondence as the game was effectively done.The day started 30 minutes earlier than scheduled with 37 overs lost on day four. Humphreys, who had bowled 18 overs to stumps, was handed the ball. He needed three overs to create a chance – when he got Madhevere to nearly chip a drive to cover – and one more ball to trap Newman Nyamhuri plumb in front and complete his five-for.McBrine replaced Mark Adair right after and created two chances in his second over, both of which went down. Lorcan Tucker dropped one that went low off Richard Ngarava’s edge, while McBrine failed to hold onto a low skimmer the next ball. In the next over, Paul Stirling shuffled to the right at first slip when Madhevere’s reverse-sweep went aerial but couldn’t get within reach.Ireland took the new ball in the 81st over and McBrine found extra bounce with it right away. The sun broke out but Zimbabwe’s hopes flickered off in the 84th, when Humphreys got Madhevere, his sixth scalp.Blessing Muzarabani had put on 67 for the last wicket in the first innings with Trevor Gwandu, but to put on 74 with Richard Ngarava was too much of an ask. Ngarava hung around for 39 balls and took a couple of swings. He was beaten in the 86th over and knocked over in the next.McBrine flighted a full ball on middle stump, beat the slog sweep, and set the smiles free in Ireland’s camp. When asked about the hat-trick of wins at the presentation, Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie said, “Just waiting for the DVD to come out! We are desperate to play, we don’t know when our next Test match is.”As per the FTP, they are scheduled to play Afghanistan at home in July.

“It’s a great moment for us and for all the girls back home,” Bismah Maroof says after Pakistan won the T20I series in New Zealand

Danyal Rasool05-Dec-2023Before Sunday, no Asian women’s side had won a T20I match in New Zealand, with Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka losing all the games they played there. But over the past two days, Nida Dar’s side has changed all that in Dunedin, triumphing in the first T20I on Sunday, and on Tuesday, going one better, winning the second T20I and sealing the series in the process.Following the second win, a glowing Bismah Maroof talked about the impact this win would have, not just on the confidence of the team, but “all the girls back home”.”We’d been struggling for results for a while – it’s a big moment for us,” she said in a video released by PCB. “As a team, the way we showed character is outstanding. It’s a great moment for us and for all the girls back home. This is a morale booster for us, and we’ll carry the confidence of this, and it’s something that will give youngsters confidence too.”While Pakistan have historically struggled against the traditionally stronger sides, there are inklings that this might be beginning to change. In September, Pakistan beat South Africa 3-0 in a T20I series at home, and won one of the three ODIs in the series that followed against them. It was something Dar was eager to stress on, and she expressed the desire to build on it.”It’s been our wish for a long time that we perform this way against the big teams and beat the big teams,” she said. “Our team is gelling together nicely. The girls have taken lessons from the way cricket is played around the world and their intent is now obvious. Now we’re getting results; we won a series against South Africa and now New Zealand. I’m sure it’s onwards and upwards from here.”It’d be nice to get a whitewash – we got a whitewash against South Africa, so we want to do it against the White Ferns. The conditions [in Dunedin] suit us, though it’s a bit windy, which can cause us problems. But the girls are responsible and [are] executing their roles perfectly and that makes me very optimistic.”It was Pakistan’s bowling that set the stage for both wins, with 22-year-old medium pacer Fatima Sana leading the way each time. Across the two games, she has registered figures of 8-0-40-6, with vital top-order wickets each time setting the tone.Dar attributed the improvement to continued exposure, pointing to the need for a women’s T20 league in Pakistan. Earlier this year, three women’s exhibition matches took place in Rawalpindi, which saw players from abroad compete alongside Pakistani cricketers, with a view to testing out the viability of a full-fledged T20 league in the country.”Our bowling has improved, our bowlers now rank amongst the top women’s bowlers,” Dar said. “It’s very important for us to have a league, because you learn a lot from the foreign players, and it builds experience.”We learned from those three matches, where New Zealand and English players came too. This is the improvement we showed after three matches, so think about the strides we can take if we have a whole league here.”The third WT20I will be played in Queenstown on December 9.

Former South Africa Under-19 player had been hospitalised after an assault near Taunton in May

Firdose Moonda08-Sep-2022Mondli Khumalo, the former South Africa Under-19 and Kwa-Zulu Natal Inland bowler, has had a final, successful surgery after being assaulted in Somerset in May. He is now able to move around without a protective helmet and hopes to be able to return to professional cricket by early next year.”That was the final piece of the puzzle,” Rob Humphries, Khumalo’s agent, told ESPNcricinfo. “Now it’s about healing and the pathway back to professional cricket. He is in great spirits and physically, he is really good. He can get up and walk about. It’s about being able to get back in the gym and rebuilding his fitness. He is fit and strong and in a really good space.”Khumalo, who was on his first trip as an overseas professional at North Petherton Cricket Club, was attacked outside a pub in Bridgwater, near Taunton, where he was celebrating a win with his team-mates.A 27-year-old man was arrested and released on investigation and the case awaits the go-ahead from the crown prosecution service.Khumalo was unconscious at the scene and then placed in an induced coma for four days. He had three operations to relieve pressure and bleeding in the brain. Ten days after being hospitalised, Khumalo was able to stand unaided and his club team-mate Lloyd Irish shared a video of Khumalo catching a sponge ball.His fourth and final operation, to replace the piece of skull that had been removed to attend to the brain injury, took place on September 7. It would have taken place sooner, but was delayed by several weeks after Khumalo contracted Covid-19. He will remain in England until he is cleared to travel, with Humphries aiming for a November return. Khumalo’s mother and uncle, who made the trip across from South Africa to England soon after the attack, have already returned home and Khumalo has been in the club’s care.In June, they organised a crowd-funding campaign to help with the costs of Khumalo’s treatment, which is chargeable by the NHS, and raised £27,379. Further funding will be needed, as his bills have exceeded this amount.

Hasan Ali and Shaheen Afridi took a four-for each to bowl out Zimbabwe by tea on day one

Danyal Rasool29-Apr-2021Stumps Zimbabwe may have controlled whether or not to bat after Brendan Taylor called correctly at the toss, but little else was in their control all day. A collapse of the top order left them battling against the tide from the outset, and four wickets apiece for Shaheen Afridi – who reached 50 Test wickets today – and Hasan Ali skittled the hosts out for 176. To hammer home Pakistan’s advantage, their openers, Abid Ali and Imran Butt – both out of form for quite some time – remained unbeaten through the third session, bringing up a century partnership, finishing the opening day of the first Test just 73 runs behind Zimbabwe with all ten wickets still intact.The home side had found themselves outclassed, bullied and overrun in the first session. The absence of Craig Ervine and Sikandar Raza, combined with captain Sean Williams being ruled out late yesterday, meant the batting was vulnerable. Those fears were only exacerbated when Hasan struck in his first over to get rid of Kevin Kasuza. There was an element of tragicomedy to that dismissal, with a solid defensive shot trickling back towards the stumps, Kasuza’s bucked kick never really threatening to prevent the ball dislodging the off-stump bail.Afridi at the other end was consistent as ever, suffocating Zimbabwe with unerring accuracy, giving the batters’ techniques regular workings-over. It was inevitable that would bring about a wicket sooner or later, and when Prince Masvaure pushed at one with hard hands, it flew to Butt at second slip. He could have been dismissed off the first ball of the match when a strong appeal for caught behind was turned down by the umpire, but there would be no further chances once Butt grabbed hold of a smart catch.Pakistan handed a debut to offspinner Sajid Khan, but it was his left-arm counterpart Nauman Ali who provided the next breakthrough breaching Tarisai Musakanda’s defences with a ball that went straight on. Zimbabwe’s woes were compounded when Taylor fell to an uncharacteristically irresponsible shot, reaching for a Hasan delivery well wide of off stump to give Faheem Ashraf a gift at third slip. The veteran threw back his head in frustration, clearly feeling his side’s best chances of putting up a respectable first-innings total were behind it.Resistance after lunch might have made him reconsider, with debutant Roy Kaia accumulating a spirited 59-run stand with Milton Shumba for the fifth wicket. It was the only sustained phase of the innings where the batters looked untroubled, and Pakistan slightly bereft of ideas. The partnership continued after lunch in the same vein as it had concluded before, and slowly looked to be digging Zimbabwe out of the pit the top order had left them in.But when Pakistan couldn’t dismiss them, Zimbabwe were kind enough to offer a sacrifice anyway. Shumba set off for a single within the circle there was no need or possibility for, and left himself stranded in the middle of the pitch, with even a dive failing to redeem him. Kaia soldiered on briefly with Regis Chakabva, but a devastatingly effective old-ball spell from Hasan guaranteed that any hopes Zimbabwe harboured of a more substantial revival would be swiftly extinguished. He followed up his two wickets with the new ball by taking another two in the middle, removing top-scorer Kaia two runs shy of a half-century with a pinpoint yorker, and putting paid to Chakabva moments later. After that, it was left to the bowlers to scrape together a total as close to 200 as their abilities and wiles would muster.The tail did provide brief, entertaining resistance, but the carefree approach they took was, by design, short-term, and Afridi joined Hasan’s party, each finishing with four wickets. Afridi’s 50th Test wicket has come in his 16th Test, one quicker than Wasim Akram, with Hasan just three wickets short of the same mark.Donald Tiripano frustrated Pakistan with the reverse sweep for a while, interspersed with some eye-catchingly good conventional shots, ending up as his side’s second-highest scorer. Blessing Muzarabani whacked Shaheen over cow corner en route an entertaining seven-ball 14, and before they were dismissed, the final three wickets added a useful 49 runs.It might have given them a lifeline, but it left the bowlers needing to produce something special on a slow pitch still fairly conducive to batting. The hosts, however, notably lacked the penetration they would need against the attritional abilities of Abid and Butt, each eager for a chance to cement their place at the top of Pakistan’s order. Muzarabani and Richard Ngarava were safely negotiated early on, and with Zimbabwe lacking a quality spinner, batting became easier, and the runs began to flow. Abid brought up his half-century before the day was done, with Butt just seven shy of that mark.Unless something quite special happens overnight, there’s little indication that tide can be stemmed now, with Zimbabwe facing the unwelcome prospect of a huge first-innings deficit to contend with.

A round up of the Under-19 World Cup matches played on January 25, 2020

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jan-2020
ScorecardEngland allrounder George Hill, playing his first game of the Under-19 World Cup, finished with figures of 4 for 12 to help England bowl Nigeria out for 58 in 27.5 overs in the final Group D game at Kimberley. England, for whom this was their first win of the tournament, won by eight wickets with opener Sam Young finishing the game off with a six, as England racing to 64 for 2 in just 11 overs.Nigeria had opted to bat first, but the England seamers reduced them to 19 for 3 early. A 23-run fourth-wicket then took Nigeria past the forties, but then offspinner Hamidullah Qadri, who also took four wickets, and medium-pacer Hill bowled them out soon after. Nigeria captain Sylvester Okpe top-scored with 16.Young was brisk in England’s pursuit of 59, crunching five fours and two sixes in his 33-ball 39, while Hil, who batted at No.4, was not out on 7 when the winning runs were hit. Both teams will move to the Plate League stage of the tournament, having failed to come in the top two of their group. West Indies topped the group, with Australia finishing second.
ScorecardFour days after being bowled out for 41 by India, Japan slumped to 43 all out in their final Group A match, against Sri Lanka. In a match reduced to 22 overs a side, Sri Lanka chose to bowl, and took just 18.3 overs to rattle through Japan’s line-up, and only 8.3 to complete their chase.None of the Japan batsmen got into double figures, their No. 4 Debashish Sahoo coming closest with 9. Four Sri Lanka bowlers – Dilshan Madushanka, Sudeera Thilakaratne, Ashian Daniel and Navod Paranavithana – took two wickets each, with the other two coming via run-outs.Paranavithana fell early in Sri Lanka’s chase, before Mohammad Shamaz and Ravindu Rasantha steered their side home with an unbroken partnership of 38. The result confirmed that New Zealand – whose match against Japan didn’t produce a result – joined India in the quarter-finals.
ScorecardZimbabwe beat Scotland to notch their first win of the Under-19 World Cup, with Tadiwanashe Marumani leading the way. The opener smashed 85 off just 55 balls, including 12 fours and 4 sixes, as Zimbabwe won by eight wickets in just 17.1 overs after keeping Scotland to 140 all out.Put in to bat, Scotland were in deep trouble at 42 for 5 with the top five all back in the hut, but a lower middle-order rally prevented a complete rout. Allrounder Kess Sajjad made 68 off 71 from No.7, and was the last wicket to fall. He shared a 66-run stand for the sixth wicket with Daniel Cairns (28), and did the bulk of the scoring all through his time at the crease.Sakhumuzi Ndlela, the right-arm medium pacer, had done the early damage, taking four of the first five wickets. He ended with figures of 4 for 27, while Dion Myers and Tadiwanashe Nyangani had a couple of wickets each.In the chase, Marumani made it a no-contest, playing the dominant role in a 121-run stand for the second wicket that came off just 14 overs. He was out with just two needed for victory, and Milton Shumba finished things off in style, hitting a six with the scores level.Neither of Zimbabwe or Scotland have finished in the top two of Group C though, and both will thus be progressing to the Plate League knockouts. From Group C, Bangladesh and Pakistan will progress to the quarter-finals, having finished on top of the group.