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Arthur Morris has described his former team-mate Sam Loxton as a great competitor and a marvellous team man who was great fun off the field

Brydon Coverdale03-Dec-2011Arthur Morris has described his former team-mate Sam Loxton as a great competitor and a marvellous team man who was great fun off the field. Loxton died in Queensland overnight at the age of 90, leaving Morris and Neil Harvey as the only remaining members of Don Bradman’s 1948 Invincibles, and Morris, 89, as Australia’s oldest living Test cricketer.The three men had enjoyed a trip to Darwin together last year, 62 years after they had toured England in a legendary squad that did not lose any of their 34 matches. Harvey and Loxton were especially close friends, having first met as state team-mates when Loxton was the room-mate of the teenage Harvey.Morris said Harvey had flown to the Gold Coast on Saturday on a pre-planned holiday during which he had intended to see his long-time friend.”He was hoping to see Sam,” Morris said. “He was going on holidays up there and would have seen him. Neil would be very upset.”Harvey and Loxton combined for a memorable 105-run partnership during the Leeds Test on the 1948 tour, in a match that was famous for Morris and Bradman leading a record chase of 404. In the first innings, Loxton struck five sixes in his 93, a typically aggressive display, and Morris recalled the way Loxton kept attacking even as a maiden century seemed to be approaching.”When he was 93 at Leeds he went up the wicket and I think he tried to hit a seven!” Morris said. “He missed and was bowled, but that’s the way he played the game.”He was very aggressive on the field as a bowler. He was a brilliant fieldsman. I remember a couple of times he would run people out at the other end of the pitch, running a leisurely single. Sam would knock over the stumps. I remember saying to him once ‘that’s the second time you’ve done that’, and he said ‘you’d think they’d learn, wouldn’t you?'”He was a great competitor. He was a fine bowler and a very good batsman, a great fieldsman and a marvellous team man.”Colin McDonald played several seasons for Victoria with Loxton, who went on to serve as the team manager on the 1959-60 tour of the subcontinent. It was on that trip that Loxton, in his no-nonsense manner, told the president of Pakistan, the general Ayub Khan, that his country could not expect to progress as a cricket nation until they stopped playing on matting pitches.”Ayub Khan listened to this with a great deal of interest and he issued instructions, and instructions from Ayub Khan in those days were not broken,” McDonald said. “Pakistan didn’t play any more Test matches on matting. Sam Loxton had a fair bit to do with that. He was a man who was listened to. He was very intelligent.”He was a great manager. He knew a tremendous amount about cricket and he didn’t suffer fools gladly. He had such a good knowledge of cricket himself, so he understood us and our thinking.”Loxton went on to serve in the Victorian parliament for 24 years, and was the party whip in Henry Bolte’s government.”I think that was a very good place for him in the party, because he rounded up the ones who were lagging,” said McDonald, who himself considered a career in politics. “He would keep them in line.”Also an excellent Australian rules footballer who played for St Kilda in the VFL, Loxton’s wholehearted approach and all-round skills led the commentator John Arlott to write that “eleven Loxtons would defeat the world – at anything.”Even in his later years, after he had moved to Queensland from Melbourne, Loxton retained a strong interest in the game. The Cricket Victoria chairman Geoff Tamblyn said Loxton always made time for young players.”He was a legend around Victorian cricket for many years,” Tamblyn said. “He has been living in Queensland for a few years and always made an effort to speak to the young Victorian players when they were up there playing. He was a tremendous person.”

James Anderson believes that England have their noses slightly in front at the end of an eventful second day at Sydney

Andrew Miller at the SCG04-Jan-2011James Anderson believes that England have their noses slightly in front at the end of an eventful second day at Sydney, but Mitchell Johnson’s late dismissal of Kevin Pietersen for 36 has redressed the balance of a match that looks set to become one of the closest-fought contests in recent Ashes history.Despite the tightness of the scorelines in the past two campaigns in particular, England and Australia have developed a strange tendency to beat each other out of sight in recent years, with arguably the closest contest since the 2005 Ashes being Australia’s incredible six-wicket victory at Adelaide in 2006-07.Since the 5-0 whitewash in that series, England have won two Tests by an innings and two by more than 100 runs, but have themselves been overturned by an innings at Headingley in 2009 and by 267 runs at Perth last month. This match, however, looks capable of being a much closer contest, with Australia’s tail carrying them to a defendable first innings of 280, before England replied with 3 for 167 at the close.”It’s pretty even-Steven, maybe slightly in our favour,” said James Anderson, the pick of England’s attack with 4 for 66. “But it’s a real tough one to call. We’ve got a crucial morning session tomorrow to get through. If you look at the last couple of days, it has done a little bit first thing in the morning – with overhead conditions. We’ve got to really dig in tomorrow morning and hope to get up towards them and get a decent lead.”Prior to the fifth Test, the Sydney curator Tom Parker reckoned that his wicket was a typical bat-first SCG track, which would improve over the first two days before taking spin from day three onwards. However, the majority of the contest has been played under thick cloud cover, which has not made the ball swing especially prodigiously, but may well have delayed the deterioration of the surface for the spinners.”Who knows?” said Anderson. “There was a lot more grass than I’ve ever seen here at Sydney, so that might hold the wicket together a lot more and it might not turn as much as it usually does. But we’ll have to wait and see, we don’t know what the weather conditions will be [for the rest of the match].”Anderson’s first duty on day three will be with the bat, after he came out to join Alastair Cook late in the day, following Pietersen’s misjudged hook that picked out deep fine leg. “It was disappointing to see KP go like that but it’s just one of those things,” he said. “He likes to play his shots and nine times out of ten he’d hit that one for four.”My role is to bat as long as I possibly can,” he added. “If I can stick around and create a partnership with Cooky, even if I’m not scoring heavily I’ll still be frustrating the opposition and tiring their bowlers out, and doing a job for the team. It’s not my favourite time of the day, but I enjoy the challenge and my job as nightwatchman. I know I’m doing a really good job for my team if I protect the batsman, and it’s nice to walk off at the end of the day having done my job.”Anderson’s presence, however, provides Australia with an obvious target in a morning session that will once again begin early at 10am, and Johnson believes that he and his bowlers had found their rhythm by the close of play following an off-the-boil spell with the new ball.”We probably started off our innings not that great but we hung in there and got back to bowling good areas,” he said. “When you bowl those good areas there was enough there in that wicket still. Obviously with conditions being overcast there was still that little bit of swing there, a little bit off the deck still, so we need to go out there in the morning and start very well.”Hopefully get a little bit of luck to go our way as well, I think they had a little bit of luck go their way but that’s just how cricket is sometimes,” he added. “Once we got bowling in those good areas we showed we can do it.”Johnson, who claimed two of the three England wickets to fall including Jonathan Trott for a duck, said he had been lifted by his own role with the bat, in which he clubbed a hard-hitting 53 to help add 91 for the last two wickets.”Yes definitely, it was a good partnership me and Hilfy got in the end there, it was very important in the way the game was going,” he said. “The way they bowled was pretty impressive, they bowled very good lines and lengths throughout that whole time, that innings. But we got our score up to I think a pretty good score on that wicket.”

Sreesanth will return home ahead of the second Test against Bangladesh because of a thigh strain he suffered while bowling on the final day of the Chittagong Test

Sriram Veera in Dhaka23-Jan-2010Sreesanth, the Indian fast bowler, will return home ahead of the second Test against Bangladesh because of a thigh strain he suffered while bowling on the final day of the Chittagong Test. Sreesanth was scheduled to catch a flight to India on Saturday afternoon.VVS Laxman has been ruled out of the Test as well, creating an opportunity for M Vijay to add to his two Test caps. Vijay has been India’s first-choice replacement of late but his two matches have come as opener.Laxman was supposed to have left for India on Friday but there had been a change of plan. Laxman had hurt his left hand when he dropped a catch at third slip in the first Test and had ten stitches to his hand. He was seen practising two days before the second Test, using only his non-injured hand, and on the eve of the match he was declared not fit.

Lancashire were dismissed for 284 in their first innings, a deficit of nine

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay09-Sep-2025Kent lead Lancashire by 105 after reaching 96 without loss at stumps in their second innings of the Rothesay County Championship match at Canterbury.Lancashire were dismissed for 284 in their first innings, a deficit of nine, Matt Quinn taking 4 for 43 and Matt Parkinson 4 for 93.Luke Wells hit 80 and although the visitors slumped to 195 for 8, Tom Hartley bailed them out with a 64, after he’d been dropped twice.Kent’s openers Jaydn Denly and Ben Dawkins responded with an aggressive and unbroken partnership and the hosts will be the happier of the two sides at the end of the second day.Lancashire were 19 without loss overnight and after yesterday’s collision with Ben Compton, Tawanda Muyeye developed delayed concussion symptoms. He was replaced by Joe Denly, in line with ECB protocols, although as a like-for-like replacement he wasn’t allowed to bowl. Compton himself hurt his wrist and was unable to field, or open.Kent were buoyed by two early wickets. Quinn struck in the fifth over of the morning, getting Keaton Jennings caught at first slip by Ben Dawkins for 17 and Josh Bohannon went for a fifth-ball duck, edging Joey Evison to Dawkins, who caught him at the second attempt.Although the ball regularly beat the bat, Wells and Marcus Harris put on 82 for the third wicket, Parkinson breaking the partnership when the latter charged at him and was stumped by Harry Finch for 32, leaving Lancs on 118 for 3 at lunch.The visitors regained the momentum until Matty Hurst played on to Quinn and was bowled for 24. Parkinson then had Wells caught behind.Quinn caught and bowled Michael Jones for 4, then got George Balderson lbw for 11.When Parkinson had Tom Bailey caught by Jaydn Denly at first slip for 3, Lancs were eight down and still 98 behind, but Hartley was dropped twice off Parkinson, by Finch and Mo Rizvi, and alongside Will Williams he steered Lancashire to 254 for 8 at tea.The deficit was down to 33 when Williams was lbw to Jaydn Denly, for 26, but Hartley responded by smearing Parkinson for six over midwicket to bring up his 50 and the visitors were almost level when he hit Parkinson down Ekansh Singh’s throat.With Compton absent, Jaydn Denly and Dawkins immediately went on the attack. The former pulled Hartley for six over midwicket and passed fifty with an elegant reverse-sweep off Wells, shortly before stumps.Dawkins survived a loud appeal in the final over, as Bailey bowled a tricky over of off-spin.

With 202 runs to get and six wickets in hand, the offspinner says there is confidence in the rest of the batting group

Alex Malcolm10-Mar-2024Nathan Lyon’s words said one thing but his body language and tone said quite another as Australia still have a chance to pull off a great escape in the second Test against New Zealand at Hagley Oval.Australia slumped to 34 for 4 in pursuit of the target of 279. Lyon had been padded up as the nightwatcher yet again but was not required after Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh steered Australia to stumps without any further loss. But they still need 202 runs to win with just six wickets in hand and two days of the Test remaining.Lyon said Australia believe they can win from any position.”It would be a great Test match win if we’re able to pick this off,” Lyon said after play. “There’s a lot of belief in that change room and I think that’s credit to Pat [Cummins] and Ron [Andrew McDonald], the way they go about their leadership, instilling a lot of belief that we can win from any position.”And we’ve now found ourselves in this position that our backs are up against the wall. New Zealand were on a roll tonight but I’m sitting here understanding and believing that we can win, that’s for sure.”Related

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Australia did chase down 282 at Edgbaston in the first Ashes Test in June last year, with Cummins and Lyon finishing as the heroes, sharing an unbeaten 55-run stand for the ninth wicket. But Australia have only run down 279 or more in the fourth innings on 13 occasions and only twice since 2006.Before Edgbaston, Australia’s last successful chase of that size was in South Africa in 2011, when Cummins was again the hero on Test debut as an 18-year-old while Lyon was nervously padded up as the next and last man in.”We’ve been able to tick off a couple of totals in the past,” Lyon said. “So there’s a lot of the confidence within our batting group and us bowlers with the bat in hand. We pride ourselves on our batting, so we’ll give it our best chance if it comes down to that.”But while Lyon was bullish with his words, his body language and tone told a different story. Just eight days earlier, he had sat bolt upright in the press conference room on the third night of the Wellington Test and declared confidently with a smile that Australia would easily create the seven chances required with the ball to win the game despite New Zealand being 111 for 3 chasing 369.In Christchurch, he was leaning forward and speaking in a quieter tone. He had only just taken the pads off, having admitted he had nervously sat there as the nightwatcher, a job he has had to do twice already in this series, having not done it for two years despite being Australia’s designated man.”Too often I seem to be batting in the top six,” Lyon said. “Happy to do the role but it’s nice that I didn’t have to walk out there tonight.”He stopped short of criticising his batting group, but his tone spoke volumes as to how the team is feeling about their latest batting collapse.”It’s not a frustration. I think it’s a learning curve for us,” Lyon said. “We’re on a path, and on a journey, on a dream to become one of Australia’s great cricket teams.”And I’m not saying that we are that at the moment. It’s a learning experience for us. And if we can try and get better at that, then it’s going to put us in really good stead on our dream to become a great Australian team.”I know that we’ve got a lot of work to do, but that’s our dream and that’s our goal.”They were interesting words from a largely unchanged World Test Championship-winning team. A team with nine of the 11 members over the age of 30 and one other aged 29.Australia could still win at Hagley Oval. But, right now, their actions and words are not in sync.

Services, meanwhile, beat Mumbai by eight wickets in the biggest upset of the tournament so far

Shashank Kishore13-Nov-2022Saurashtra’s Samarth Vyas became only the fifth batter to hit a double-century in the Vijay Hazare Trophy when he smashed a 131-ball 200 against Manipur in Delhi on Sunday.He joined Karn Veer Kaushal, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Sanju Samson and Prithvi Shaw in the double-centurions club. Overall, this was Vyas’s third List-A century.Vyas put on a 282-run opening stand with Harvik Desai, who made 100 off 107 balls, as Saurashtra posted 397 for 4. In reply, Manipur were bowled out for 115. This was Saurashtra’s second straight win in the competition.On Saturday, they opened their campaign with a seven-wicket win over Chandigarh, with Vyas contributing a 64-ball 61 in a chase of 216.Vyas has been in excellent form lately. He topped the run charts for Saurashtra at the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20s earlier in the month, where they made the semi-finals. Vyas smashed 314 runs in seven innings at a strike rate of 177.40 and a best of 97 not out against Nagaland. He made one other 97, against Baroda. Overall, he was the fifth-highest run-getter in the tournament, finishing just 49 runs behind Yash Dhull, who topped the charts.Vyas made his List A debut in 2015 but has only recently become a regular member of the team. He started as a middle-order batter but has moved up the order of late, with the team management pushing him up to bat in the top three.Records-wise, Ajinkya Rahane’s 187 for Mumbai against Maharashtra in 2007-08 was the highest individual List A score in the tournament for nearly a decade until Uttarakhand’s Kaushal scaled the 200 barrier in the 2018-19 season against Sikkim.Since then, the tournament has seen four other double-centuries, including the one by Vyas on Sunday. Shaw’s 227 not out for Mumbai against Puducherry in the previous season remains the highest score, though.Meanwhile in Ranchi, in the biggest upset of the tournament so far, Services beat Mumbai by eight wickets by chasing down 265 with 27 balls remaining.Shubham Rohilla and Ravi Chauhan, the Services openers, hit centuries. Their opening stand of 231 broke the back of the chase. That meant Jaiswal’s 104 went in vain and Mumbai, who started their campaign with an eight-wicket win after skittling out Bengal for 121, have one win and one loss in the competition.