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Teenager Allison, playing his third first-team innings, shines

ECB Reporters Network11-Aug-2023Charlie Allison struck a maiden half-century in only his third first-team innings to help Essex pull off an extraordinary first victory of the season in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.The 18-year-old younger brother of seamer Ben lived up to his promise in the second eleven with a mature knock of 70 that included three sixes and even outshone his captain Tom Westley’s patient 80 from 90 balls.However, Middlesex looked well on track to record their own first win of the campaign when they reached 236 for 3 with 15 overs left chasing 299 to win.But despite Mark Stoneman setting the foundations for their reply with a dozen fours and two sixes in a 97-ball 93, Middlesex collapsed to lose by three runs with seven balls left to the delight of a large Chelmsford crowd.And it was Allison whose throw from the third-man boundary ran out Ethan Bamber as the final Middlesex pair tried to steal the runs to decide the match.Middlesex had 100 on the board inside the 15 overs of their reply with Stoneman reaching his fifty from just 39 balls. It included two sixes, one scooped off Aaron Beard and another pulled off Jamie Porter. He might have perished there and then had Michael Pepper’s throw been more accurate into the wicketkeeper’s gloves.He capitalised on the reprieve with an extravagant reverse-sweep for four off Simon Harmer. James Cracknell had been slightly overshadowed in the stand of 124, though he took two successive boundaries off Harmer before he was brilliantly caught in the covers by Robin Das for 48.The wicket had no significant impact on Middlesex’s progress and they were halfway to their target in 22 overs, though Sam Robson was dropped on 20 at backward point by Das.Essex thought they had Robson soon after for a catch behind off Beau Webster that left umpire Paul Nicholls unmoved and the bowler showing his frustration by slamming the ball to the ground. Robson was finally removed for 26, driving at Aaron Beard and being bowled.Stoneman’s stay eight minutes shy of two hours was ended when he swung Beard to Porter on the deep fine-leg boundary.At that point Middlesex threatened to implode with three wickets going down in 14 balls. Jack Davies was bamboozled by one from Harmer before Ryan Higgins dragged on from Webster and Luke Hollman was run out without facing a ball. It got worse when Josh de Caires was bowled by Porter to leave Middlesex still 42 runs short with 10 overs remaining.Martin Andersson had helped Simpson take them within nine runs of victory when he was bowled by Webster. He was followed, two runs later, by Simpson, bowled by Westley. And then came the unlikely denouement.On a pitch that took spin early on, de Caires’s three wickets in eight balls halted an Essex onslaught led by Pepper, who took a liking to Middlesex debutant Isaan Kaushal, hitting him for four fours and a six over extra cover before the 21-year-old seamer was withdrawn from the attack. However, when Kaushel returned late on he claimed his maiden first-team wicket when Will Buttleman picked out deep mid-on.Pepper swept de Caires’s first ball for his sixth boundary but fell next ball for an 18-ball 31 to a stupendous running catch over his shoulder at deep long leg by Andersson. Das then pulled de Caires invitingly to deep square leg, and two balls later Webster advanced too far and turned in dismay to see John Simpson removing the bails.Luc Benkenstein helped steady the ship in a 55-run partnership with Westley. But after lofting de Caires for six over long leg, he took a wild swipe at Luke Hollman, who then had Harmer playing all round one to be lbw.Westley’s innings had few thrills, though he carved Robson through extra cover for his sixth boundary the ball before he was beaten by one that turned from outside off and took middle stump.Allsion had played calmly alongside Westley but cut loose once his captain had departed. He reached his fifty from 59 balls with a six to long-off in a Robson over that also went for a maximum over long-leg by Buttleman. Allison’s 65-ball innings ended when he played over a ball from Bamber.

The debate was triggered after Chahal bowled Warner but the bails didn’t fall

Shashank Kishore12-May-20224:56

Do stumps with LED lights make bails redundant?

Former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar says bails are “redundant” in today’s cricket, and need to be done away with because “they add a lot of complications” to an already complex set of rules.The debate was triggered in the first place after Yuzvendra Chahal was denied an “obvious wicket” when he beat David Warner in the air and off the pitch to hit the wicket. However, while the stumps lit up, the bails didn’t fall, thus failing to fulfil a major requirement of the bowled law.Related

• Time for bails to go? Chahal advocates rule change after Warner non-dismissal

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It is widely believed bails were used in cricket in the pre-technology era to be sure the ball had hit the wicket. Manjrekar, and many other pundits, believe that given today’s technology, the bails can be done away with.The LED bails currently in use light up the moment they lose contact with the rest of the wicket, which is also used as the instance the wicket was broken for purposes of checking run-outs and stumpings. If the bails were to be done away with, it shouldn’t be too difficult to have wickets that light up the moment they are touched.”I’ve said this before as well, it’s redundant now with the LED stumps to have the bails on,” Manjrekar said on ESPNcricinfo’s T20 Time: Out. “Today it would’ve been a wicket deserving for Chahal who bowled superbly. It was a terrible shot from Warner, and it didn’t get a wicket. Unless it’s adding an aesthetic value, they should just get rid of the bails because they’re completely redundant with LED technology.”9:00

Runorder from the archives (Jan 2021): Time to do away with the bails?

“[The bails were used] just to be sure the ball has hit the stumps they had these bails on top, because if the ball just kissed the stumps you won’t know if there weren’t any bails,” Manjrekar said. “And the bails were meant to fall off if the stumps were disturbed. But now that you have a sensor, you know the ball has hit the stumps, so why are the bails there?”Manjrekar has always been for technology playing a greater role in cricket. In 2013, he called for technology to monitor bowling actions live around the time the ICC had begun to clamp down on suspect actions. He cited more examples, like in the case of a stumping appeal where umpires are forced to check at what point the bails come off the groove while adjudicating. This he felt was adding layers of complexity to decision-making and retaining bails anymore was “defying common sense.””If you have the technology, don’t have the bails,” he said. “The other problem with bails is, when there is a stumping, you wait to it to light up and then you’re talking about whether both the bails are off the grooves and there’s just a lot of complication when you’re judging stumped or run out. Just keep it simple.”I know it won’t happen because we don’t like to change too many things. We tweak few other rules, but certain very obvious things aren’t done. Getting rid of bails may sound scandalous to lot of people but it defies common sense.”Piyush Chawla, the India legspinner, backed Manjrekar’s theory and hoped better sense would prevail. If the LED technology was available and it was trusted to give “clear evidence”, it should be taken.”When you have clear evidence, why not,” he asked :”That’s what I believe in. We clearly saw it hit the stump, but the bails didn’t fall off and he survived, and he was riding on luck, because there was a dropped catch and then this. Maybe if they got a wicket there, it was a different story altogether. There should be some rules where if the ball hit the stumps and the LED glows, it should be given out.”

The result makes it a 1-2-3 for Asian sides, with Bangladesh and India set to contest the final

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Feb-2020Match abandoned:
The New Zealand and Pakistan players could only wait and watch, and hope for the rain to go away so they could have a contest to determine who should finish third – behind Bangladesh and India, the two finalists – at the Under-19 World Cup.As it turned out, the Benoni rain that had prevented the Australia v West Indies fifth-place playoff from being completed didn’t allow even a single ball to be bowled in this game, meaning Pakistan finished third and New Zealand fourth, because of their five points to New Zealand’s three in the group stage.Pakistan had a strong run through the group stage, beating Scotland and Zimbabwe before their game against Bangladesh was rained off with Pakistan in a strong position, having reduced their opponents to 106 for 9. They then trumped Afghanistan by six wickets to enter the semi-final where they lost to India by ten wickets, Yashasvi Jaiswal and Divyaansh Saxena, the India openers, chasing down the target of 173 without much fuss.New Zealand, meanwhile, had a rain-affected campaign to start with, their game against Japan called off with them very much in pole position, before they beat Sri Lanka but lost to India via the DLS method. West Indies were then beaten by two wickets in a close finish before New Zealand fell short against Bangladesh in the semi-final.Interestingly, the third-place playoff at the last edition of the World Cup, in 2018 in New Zealand, was also washed out without a ball bowled, and Pakistan finished third then too, pushing Afghanistan to fourth place.

Spinner takes six wickets to help West Indies inflict an innings defeat on Zimbabwe

Abhimanyu Bose14-Feb-2023Gudakesh Motie spun West Indies to a 1-0 series win as they wrapped up the second Test against Zimbabwe by an innings and four runs.Motie, playing his third Test, returned figures of 7 for 37 and 6 for 62 as West Indies won the match convincingly inside three days, despite rain wiping out large durations on the second and third days. His figures of 13 for 99 are also the best in a Test match by a West Indies spinner, as he went past Sonny Ramadhin’s 11 for 152 against England in 1950.Despite good performances by Victor Nyauchi, Innocent Kaia and captain Craig Ervine, Zimbabwe succumbed to a big defeat, with their batting line-up faltering in the absence of Gary Ballance, who missed the game due to a migraine headache.Related

• Motie gives Zimbabwe a scare but debutant Tsiga helps salvage draw

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Play started late on day three due to a wet outfield and once it did, Nyauchi made an instant impact, getting Jason Holder to nick off with the first delivery of the day.Motie, the other overnight batter, soon became Nyauchi’s fifth victim as he found deep midwicket with a pull as West Indies added just two runs to their total, taking a 177-run lead. It was Nyauchi’s first five-wicket haul in Tests.For the second time in the match, Kaia was off the blocks quickly, hitting three fine strokes for boundaries in the first two overs. But Alzarri Joseph gave West Indies the first breakthrough in the third over as Tanunurwa Makoni edged behind, looking to play an expansive drive.Then, the first bowling change brought a wicket, with Chamu Chibhabha chopping on off Holder’s bowling in the seventh over.Kaia, Zimbabwe’s best batter in the first innings, continued to chip away at West Indies’ lead, even hitting Holder for three consecutive boundaries.Ervine held down one end as Kaia scored 30 of the 41 runs that they made for the third wicket.When Motie came out to bowl, Kaia immediately started attacking him with the sweep, but looked less in control than he was against the pacers. Kaia and Ervine saw Zimbabwe reach lunch at 46 for 2. In the third over after lunch, Kaia finally fell to the sweep, as he got a thin top edge that Joshua Da Silva held on to after a small juggling act.Innocent Kaia got off to strong starts but failed to convert them•AP

He fell seven runs short of a half-century, after being dismissed for 38 in the first innings.Ervine then shed his defensive approach to keep the scoreboard ticking, even as Motie castled Milton Shumba and Tafadzwa Tsiga in quick succession to complete his first Test 10-wicket haul.Gabriel further dented Zimbabwe’s ambitions when he got one to sneak under Donald Tiripano’s bat to uproot the off-stump.Ervine then brought up his half-century off 73 deliveries with a reverse-sweep off Motie.Motie soon struck again as Wellington Masakadza gifted a simple catch to forward short leg as he came out of the crease to defend.West Indies would have hoped to wrap things up quickly, but Ervine and Brandon Mavuta held firm to see Zimbabwe reach 158 for 7 at tea, with the deficit whittled down to 19 runs.Zimbabwe then took seven off the first over after tea, bowled by Joseph, to bring the deficit down to 11 runs. But Chase had Mavuta caught at forward short leg with the first ball of the next over to give West Indies another opening.Motie came back into the attack immediately and was quick to wrap the game up.He trapped Ervine lbw for 72 – Zimbabwe’s highest score in the match – as he played back to a length ball that spun in and stayed low before getting the ball to spin past an advancing Nyauchi for Da Silva to complete a simple stumping.

The opener dominated the first day with a superb 141 against some demanding New South Wales bowling

Alex Malcolm28-Mar-2019Incumbent Australia Test opener Marcus Harris confirmed his status as a genuine big game player after scoring his third century in Sheffield Shield finals to hold Victoria’s first innings together on day one against New South Wales.He made a sublime 141 off 229 balls on a day when the home side managed just 6 for 266. New South Wales will rue the four catches they put down on a day of hard toil for little reward. At stumps the bonus points, which would decide the title in the event of a draw, stood at 0.66 for Victoria and 0.6 for New South Wales.Harris added to his extraordinary record in Shield deciders. He became the eighth player to make 500 runs or more in Shield finals taking his tally to 521 runs from six innings at an average of 104.20. His love affair with the Junction Oval also continued. He now has 661 runs at 94.43 with three hundreds and two 90s in seven innings at the ground. He also took his remarkable Shield season tally to 1165 runs at 72.81 including three centuries.Victoria needed Harris’ heroics after winning the toss and electing to bat on a dry, up and down surface.  The home side agonised in the lead-up over whether to select another specialist batsman but opted for the five bowlers, with James Pattinson batting at No.7, as they have done for most of the season.Travis Dean and Matt Short both played a part in 63 and 80-run stands with Harris but no other player in the top six scored more than 34.Dean played a loose stroke after a solid start edging Sean Abbott on the up to slip. Victoria reached 1 for 87 at lunch before Trent Copeland trapped Will Pucovski lbw for 11.But Harris played with typical fluency while the scoring stalled at the other end. He was savage on any width, particularly off the back foot. The vast majority of his 17 boundaries came square of the wicket with trademark cuts and square drives. He was unperturbed in the middle session as the Blues set quite a defensive field and was happy to milk singles and twos to deep point and deep backward square.He did have a fair bit of good fortune. He edged Abbott knee-high between third slip and gully in the eighth over and popped a drive just over Jack Edwards’ head at cover off Copeland in the 15th. He was also dropped on 71 and 121. Nick Larkin spilt a very sharp low catch to his right at a floating slip before tea and then Copeland grassed a waist-high chance in the same position six overs away from the second new ball.However, the Blues got their own slice of luck with the dismissal of Seb Gotch. Copeland found Gotch’s outside edge with a good length outswinger and Edwards pouched the flying chance at third slip only for replays on the television coverage to show Copeland had overstepped the front line by a long way, which had been missed by umpire Paul Wilson. Despite the final being broadcast live on in Australia, the playing conditions for the final don’t allow for the third umpire Gerard Abood to check for no-balls after a wicket has fallen.The incorrect decision stood as a result, leaving Victoria 3 for 113. That soon became 4 for 124 when Cameron White spooned a catch to point five overs later.  But Harris and Short steadied in the afternoon session. Short fell to a superb catch from wicketkeeper Peter Nevill, diving to his left to grab an inside edge that deflected some way from the bowling of Moises Henriques.Harris got good support from James Pattinson before falling to the second new ball when he edged a very full ball from Abbott to Copeland at slip.Pattinson and Chris Tremain scratched for 57 balls to get to stumps six down, adding just 15 runs to the total. Pattinson also had a reprieve late in the day when the usually flawless Nevill dropping a catchable chance off Copeland after he was wrong footed.

The suspended Australia batsman underwent shoulder surgery earlier this year, leading to questions on his match readiness

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Mar-2019Steven Smith is targeting a return to action in Rajasthan Royals’ opening IPL 2019 match. It would mark his full return to the game following an elbow surgery he underwent in January this year, which had left question marks over his fitness and preparedness in the lead up to the World Cup.The Royals’ first game of the season is against Kings XI Punjab, at their home base in Jaipur on March 25, and around a week before the fixture, Smith said that he had been hitting the ball well enough in the nets and “getting myself into a good rhythm”.Smith has a set plan for getting to his best before the team’s season-opener, in the process putting out a timeline for his return to on-field action for the first time since his surgery.ALSO READ: What Smith, Warner reintegration really means“Hitting as many balls as I can, really, over the next week, getting myself into a good rhythm. Started batting a couple of weeks ago back home, feel like I’m hitting the ball really well, so yeah, just try and get my rhythm right,” he said in a Royals’ social media chat.”(I’ll try to) make sure over the next week to get a lot of work in, so that I can probably taper off towards the back-end of the week so I can freshen up and be ready to go on the 25th and hopefully start off the Royals season with a win.”
Smith and David Warner complete their year-long bans for ball-tampering on March 29. The decision on the part of the Cricket Australia management is that the two of them should have an extended stint in the IPL before returning to Australia in early May for a training camp in Brisbane ahead of the World Cup. It was confirmed earlier that Warner, who also underwent should surgery earlier this year, would be fit and available for selection in Sunrisers Hyderabad’s first game of the IPL season, on March 24.For Smith, it’s a homecoming of sorts to the Royals set-up, which he was a part of in 2014 and 2015 before the franchise was suspended for two years along with Chennai Super Kings for a corruption-related issue. Smith shifted to Rising Pune Supergiant for those two seasons before he, and Warner, were suspended from the IPL last year for the Newlands ball-tampering scandal.At Royals, one of Smith’s team-mates is Jos Buttler, the explosive English wicketkeeper-batsman who had a fantastic run in the IPL last year, his performances even leading to a call-up from the England Test team.”Yeah, it’ll be great (playing with Buttler). Makes things easier for me batting with Jos for sure. He’s an exciting player, one of the most destructive batters around the world. I’m really excited to be playing with him and hopefully learn something off him as well,” Smith said.After the IPL comes the World Cup, and then the Ashes. There is no certainty about Smith’s participation in either competition, but the former captain is looking forward to being a part of both: “They are both terrific tournaments. They are both, I guess, the pinnacle of one-day cricket and Test cricket, for an Australian player. I’d love to be involved in both for sure.”

Ben Stokes threatened a late jailbreak, but Nuwan Pradeep dismissed No. 11 Mark Wood to secure a memorable win for Sri Lanka

The Report by Deivarayan Muthu21-Jun-2019
As it happenedLasith Malinga conjured a vintage spell, part-time offspinner Dhananjaya de Silva struck three times in nine balls, Angelo Mathews scored a stubborn 85 not out, and Avishka Fernando made a rollicking 49 to shock tournament favourites England and give Sri Lanka enough reason to dream of a spot in the semi-finals.There were other heroes as well for Sri Lanka. Nuwan Pradeep bowled some mean inswingers with the new ball and then returned for the last over to have No. 11 Mark Wood feathering behind to deny Ben Stokes, who remained unbeaten – and heartbroken – on 82 off 89 balls. Isuru Udana backed up his excellent pace variations with two sharp catches – one off his own bowling and the other at the edge of the boundary. Kusal Mendis (46), like Mathews, had produced his highest score of the tournament to haul Sri Lanka to a scrappy 232 for 9. All of this resulted in Sri Lanka admirably defending that meagre total against a mighty England side that had topped 300 in eight of their last nine ODI innings. This, despite some late monster blows from Stokes.He threatened a jailbreak even after England were reduced to 186 for 9 in the 44th over. He farmed the strike and teed off, violently carting Udana for back-to-back sixes and then hitting the returning Pradeep for back-to-back fours. Stokes found a single off the fifth ball of the 47th over and Wood needed to see off just one ball. However, it wasn’t to be as Pradeep’s near-perfect full ball in the channel grazed the thinnest of outside edges and capped a remarkable comeback for the ragtag, seemingly down-and-out team.Malinga had struck with the second ball of the chase to pin local lad Jonny Bairstow lbw for a duck and, not much later, sent James Vince back caught at slip. He would return to whip up some old magic, dismissing the other local boy Joe Root for 57 and Jos Buttler for 10 in successive overs. While Root was late onto a glance and was snaffled down the leg side, the ball that bested Buttler was a Malinga special: a dipping leg-stump yorker that swooped under his bat and had him lbw.ALSO READ: Stats – Malinga joins McGrath, Murali and AkramJust as Sri Lanka were ramping up the pressure on England, Jeevan Mendis bowled a half-volley and a dirty long-hop that was smoked into the stands by Stokes. Enter Dhananjaya. Exit Moeen. The batsman had just aerially slog-swept an offbreak just away from the reach of deep midwicket, but he still ventured another big blow off the next ball and picked out Udana at long-off for 16. Then, in his next over, Dhananjaya took down both Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid to leave England at 178 for 8. It became 186 for 9 when Udana tricked Jofra Archer with his back-of-the-hand variation.Stokes then went bang, but Wood, who had hoped at the halfway mark that England might not need him with the bat, couldn’t hang on with him. Had he safely negotiated that ball from Pradeep, England would have only had to deal with the change bowlers, with Malinga having bowled out too.An upset did not seem likely when Root was unflappable in the early half of the chase, playing percentage shots on a slow, grippy Headingley pitch. He got cracking with a serene punch behind point, but Malinga and Pradeep didn’t allow him to keep going with similar fluency. Root, though, soldiered to his fifth fifty-plus score in six innings this World Cup. However, it was his dismissal that triggered a full-blown collapse.The sun was shining in its full glory in the morning, and Avishka played more glorious back-foot drives and pulls that had former Sri Lankan stylist Kumar Sangakarra gushing, “He’s got timing, this boy!” on TV commentary. Archer was swatted so far into the stands beyond square leg that the ball bounced off a railing and disappeared out of the ground. All told, Avishka took Archer for 24 off 15 balls. However, when Wood dug one short and wide outside off, he neither played an upper-cut nor a ramp and wound up simply gliding the ball into the lap of deep third man.Mathews and Kusal Mendis then got together for a 71-run stand – the highest in the game. Mathews took 13 balls to get off the mark and 39 to find the boundary, but Kusal Mendis scored at a brisker clip at the other end as they kept Moeen and Rashid at bay until the 30th over. Rashid, who is nursing a shoulder injury and taking injections for it, suddenly rediscovered some zip and removed Kusal Mendis and Jeevan Mendis off successive balls to reduce Sri Lanka to 133 for 5.With the innings spiralling out of control, Mathews adopted a more vigilant approach and tightened up further to give Sri Lanka a shot at batting out their 50 overs. Archer and Wood’s extra pace made light work of the lower order, but they could not find a way past Mathews.He tiptoed to an 84-ball half-century – the joint-slowest in this tournament alongside Afghanistan’s Hashmatullah Shahidi’s effort. But, it wasn’t until the last over of the innings that Mathews unleashed a shot in anger. His lusty leg-side club off Archer helped Sri Lanka reach 232, which proved enough in the end.

Injury just 20 days away from New Zealand’s ODI World Cup opener; timeline for recovery yet to be established

Vithushan Ehantharajah15-Sep-2023Tim Southee will fly home to New Zealand with his World Cup involvement in doubt, after scans revealed he had dislocated and fractured a bone in his right thumb while dropping a catch during the fourth ODI against England.Southee suffered the injury trying to take a catch off Joe Root (on 8 at the time) while fielding at a wide first slip off the last delivery of the 14th over at Lord’s, bowled by Ben Lister. He signalled his discomfort immediately before being escorted off the field by a member of the touring medical team.After leaving the ground for a scan, he did not play any further part in New Zealand’s 100-run loss – Trent Boult replaced him as a substitute fielder, while he didn’t come out to bat in the latter stages of the innings.With just 20 days before New Zealand begin their World Cup campaign, against England in Ahmedabad in the opening game of the tournament, New Zealand will hope the further assessment can allow Southee to keep his place in the 15-man squad for what will be his fourth ODI World Cup.”It’s not ideal for Timmy,” Tom Latham, New Zealand’s captain, said. “He’s a massive leader amongst the group and obviously he’ll be assessed over the coming days when we get back home to see how bad it is, but we do have a bit of time leading into those first couple of games, so we’ll know more over the next couple of days.”He’s a pretty resilient character, so I’m sure he’ll be doing all he can to be on the plane, ready for that first game. But it’s hard to know at this point what the timeframe will be. Once he gets home and has a few more scans, we’ll know the extent of what’s going on.”Remarkably, Southee was the third of three injuries sustained in New Zealand’s cordon, and their fourth of the match overall. Daryl Mitchell dislocated his ring finger taking a smart low catch to dismiss Jonny Bairstow, before Finn Allen – on for Mitchell – suffered a laceration on the little finger of his right hand when giving Root his first life on 7 after a misjudged late cut, again off Lister. Root was unable to make the most of the two bits of fortune, eventually bowled by Rachin Ravindra for 29. However, Allen was later cleared of any further damage to his finger.Lister’s misery was compounded when he hobbled off with a hamstring issue after bowling six overs, an injury that has now ended his stint with Kent, for whom he was due to play in the remainder of their County Championship campaign. Neither Allen nor Lister, who was drafted into this series as a replacement for Adam Milne, are in the World Cup squad.Mitchell was able to return to the field and cover for the loss of two quicks with seven overs of medium pace. He finished with figures of 2 for 40, removing Jos Buttler for 36 with his fourth delivery, and then snaring David Willey in the final over as England reached 311 for 9. However, he made just 4 from 14 balls with the bat as New Zealand’s series hopes faded.

Garg was trying to take evasive action when a back foot punch from Avesh Khan struck him

Hemant Brar in Alur01-Sep-2019India Green batsman Priyam Garg was hit in the neck while fielding at silly point on day four of his side’s Duleep Trophy match against India Red in Alur. Garg was conscious but in pain as the physio applied an ice pack to the injured area. An ambulance was brought on to the field and, as a precaution, he was taken to hospital to run some tests and scans.The incident took place on the last ball of the 138th over of India Red’s innings, bowled by Rahul Chahar. Garg found himself directly in line of the travelling ball while taking evasive action against a back-foot punch from Avesh Khan. Garg’s helmet had a neck guard, which softened the impact.”Initially, we had suspected a concussion and that’s why took him for some scans. But he never showed any signs of a concussion,” India Green physio Prasanth Panchada said. “Still we are sending the MRIs to another radiologist for a second opinion but as of now he is fine and can bat as well.”Meanwhile, Avesh’s maiden first-class half-century helped India Red take a one-run lead. Avesh, who hit two fours and seven sixes in his 56-ball 64, added 73 for the tenth wicket with Sandeep Warrier; the latter contributing only 5.Despite conceding the lead, their higher quotient means that India Green are almost through to the final, unless they collapse in the second innings.

Jos Buttler’s team have sealed qualification for the 2025 Champions Trophy

Andrew Miller11-Nov-20232:12

Harmison: Buttler has to take ownership for the future

England 337 for 9 (Stokes 84, Root 60, Bairstow 59, Rauf 3-64) beat Pakistan 244 (Salman 51, Willey 3-56) by 93 runsEngland’s soon-to-be-deposed world champions bade farewell to the 2023 World Cup with a glimpse of their former domineering selves, as they marched to an emphatic 93-run win over Pakistan at Eden Gardens. The result means that Babar Azam’s men are officially out of semi-final contention.David Willey marked the final appearance of his international career with a sparky all-round display that included his 100th and final ODI wicket, and after Ben Stokes had underpinned an imposing total of 337 for 9 with his second forceful outing in quick succession, Moeen Ali and Adil Rashid turned the screw on a spin-friendly surface to snuff out any pretence of a contest with four wickets between them.England vs Pakistan could have been one of the matches of the World Cup, and surely would have been had either team lived up to their pre-tournament expectations. Instead, both slipped out of the sidedoor among the also-rans, even if England’s second victory in quick succession did confirm them a seventh-place finish in the group-stage standings, and a place at the 2025 Champions Trophy – the most pyrrhic of consolation prizes.As for Pakistan, their despondent display began from the moment that Jos Buttler called correctly at the toss. With fourth-placed New Zealand streets ahead of them on net run-rate, their already slim chance of reaching the semi-finals had rested on putting a huge score on the board and routing England by 287 runs or more in response – which, to be fair, wasn’t totally outlandish given England’s experiences in the tournament so far.2:04

‘Shaheen has failed to deliver impact’

Being asked to bowl first, however, was a different matter. Once Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan had biffed along to 72 for 0 in the powerplay – England’s highest of the tournament – Pakistan already needed to be able to tick off that total inside three overs, and that requirement only rose exponentially with every additional run. Their eventual target of 338 meant their challenge would be officially snuffed out after 6.4 overs of their chase, by which stage Willey had reduced them to 30 for 2 with his 98th and 99th ODI wickets.From there the only way was down for Pakistan. Babar Azam miscued Gus Atkinson to midwicket to end his campaign as he had begun it against the Netherlands, while Mohammad Rizwan also provided an unwitting echo of past performances, as he galloped down the pitch to Moeen and seized up with cramp while the ball gripped to bowl him through his gate – a comedic reprise of his heroics against Sri Lanka earlier in the campaign.Regardless of the subplots, it was unquestionably England’s most complete performance of the World Cup. At the ninth time of asking, they got their batting tempo just right on what soon proved to be a sluggish black-soil surface, with a trio of half-centuries from Bairstow, Joe Root and Stokes interspersed with a clutch of unfettered cameos – including an admittedly jammy 27 from 18 balls from Buttler – that suggested that they had finally stopped worrying and simply reverted to hitting the ball as hard and as often as possible.Fifty six of Ben Stokes’ 84 runs came in boundaries•ICC/Getty Images

Bairstow, to be fair, hadn’t strayed far from that formula all tournament, but, after an underwhelming haul of 156 runs at 19.50 in his previous eight innings, this time he allowed himself time to gauge the pace of the pitch before signalling the charge with five fours and a six in the space of 16 balls after just one run from his first 11.His eventual 59 from 61 balls ended with a flat drive to cover off Haris Rauf, by which stage Malan, England’s most consistent performer in an underwhelming field, had already fallen on the reverse-sweep for 31. However, in taking England’s opening stand to 82 in the 14th over, the pair had at least spared Root a reacquaintance with the powerplay – a period of the game that, to judge by his 11 dismissals in 19 innings since the 2019 win, has seemingly had him spooked.Root’s bafflingly poor tournament would conclude with his third half-century in nine innings, and an overall haul of 276 runs at 30.66 that disguised the extent to which his game went missing in the crunch moments of England’s campaign. Even so, his 60 from 72 balls was still a long way removed from the standards to which he aspires – once again his timing on his trademark scoop over the keeper was noticeably awry – and until Mohammad Wasim offered up back-to-back fours to give his strike-rate a massage late in his stay, he’d managed a solitary boundary in his first 38 balls.Joe Root was happy to reverse scoop despite being bowled playing that shot in his last game•AFP/Getty Images

Root did, however, have familiar and indomitable company to mitigate his tempo. For the second match running, Stokes turned in the sort of performance that had been expected of him on his return to ODI colours. His 84 from 76 balls provided the impetus in England’s telling third-wicket stand of 132, although it might have been a different story had Shaheen Shah Afridi clung onto a return catch after suckering Stokes with a well-disguised slower ball.That moment could have sent Stokes on his way for 10 from 16 balls. Instead, it was the catalyst for an inevitable counterattack, as Afridi’s next ball was belted straight back over his head for four, followed by three more thrashes down the ground in his subsequent over.The harder Stokes came, however, the more apparent it was that his troublesome left knee was on its last sinews. At one point, after a bludgeon through the line off Wasim, it visibly locked up in his followthrough, but Stokes’ response was to get even more inventive with his angles, including an extraordinary tumbling reverse-sweep for six over backward point off Agha Salman, a shot last seen in his Headingley 2019 miracle.A second century in successive innings seemed to beckon as the range hits kept coming, until Afridi – back for the 40th over with the ball just beginning to reverse – landed a pinpoint first-ball yorker to pluck out his off stump. With Stokes booked in for surgery ahead of January’s Test tour of India, and given his prior absences from the ODI and T20I set-ups, that moment could well have marked the end of his involvement in England’s white-ball formats. It may not have been the glory he had envisaged after reversing his ODI retirement, but at least it was suitably removed from the ignominy that the team had embraced earlier in the campaign.David Willey struck with the new ball for England•AFP/Getty Images

And with a platform finally set for the middle-order, there was a chance too for Buttler to end his campaign on a high – although, in keeping with his troubling loss of form, he wasn’t entirely able to capitalise. He did at least unfurl his reverse-sweep for the first time in the tournament – an extraordinary indictment of his flatlining confidence – but having nailed the first off Shadab, he scuffed the second through Wasim’s clutches at backward point, then survived a second chance in the same over as Rauf at long-on trod on the rope after clinging onto a miscued drive.There was even time for Buttler to chop Wasim onto his own stumps without dislodging the bails, but just when it seemed the fates were feeling sorry for him, Rauf ran him out with a bullet shy from backward point, to draw a veil over an inglorious tournament haul of 138 runs at 15.33.With Brook chipping in with a hard-hitting 30 from 17, Willey marked his retirement with a lusty cameo of 15 from five balls, then carried that feel-good factor into his opening burst. His second delivery curled into Abdullah Shafique’s front pad to trap him lbw for a duck, and he had two in ten balls when Fakhar Zaman – the hero of Pakistan’s rain-affected chase against New Zealand – smeared to Stokes at mid-off for 1.Of Pakistan’s top-order, only Agha Salman, with 51 from 45, found a tempo remotely in keeping with the needs of a stiff chase, but Willey bagged him too in his second spell, caught at long-off for a satisfying 100th wicket. By then, the game was over as a contest, thanks to two other players who may well have just played their last ODIs. And if so, then Adil Rashid – England’s best player of a grim campaign – looks to have signed off with 199 wickets, after two more breakthroughs, including a sharp googly to bowl Saud Shakeel round his legs for 29.England’s margin of victory would have been more emphatic but for a carefree tenth-wicket stand of 53 between Wasim and No.11 Rauf, who belted three sixes in his 23-ball 35. But by then, both teams’ thoughts had drifted away to the what-ifs.