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Yorkshire Bank 40 Group B leaders Durham cruised to victory in a rain-affected game against Scotland in Glasgow

11-Aug-2013
ScorecardMark Stoneman ensured no alarms in Durham’s chase•Getty Images

Yorkshire Bank 40 Group B leaders Durham cruised to victory in a rain-affected game against Scotland in Glasgow.Scotland made 161 for 6 in 37 overs and Durham were set a revised 104 from 20, Mark Stoneman’s unbeaten 54 leading them home with almost four overs to spare.The hosts won the toss and after they chose to bat first, their top order all got starts but failed to either push on to a big score or get any momentum going.Opener Hamish Gardiner and Freddie Coleman took 13.3 overs to compile a half-century stand before Coleman was the first man dismissed, bowled by Gareth Breese for 24. Another spinner, Scott Borthwick, accounted for Gardiner but Richie Berrington and Calum MacLeod came together in a resolute third-wicket stand.The scoring rate was still not up to scratch, though, and after a stand of 62 MacLeod was bowled by Ben Stokes for 33, made in 42 balls with three boundaries. The usually belligerent Berrington found the ropes just once in his top score of 39 before hitting his 62nd delivery, from Paul Collingwood, to Stokes.The two allrounders picked up a further wicket apiece, Stokes finishing with 2 for 22 and Collingwood 2 for 25, before wicketkeeper Craig Wallace at least gave Scotland’s total a late boost with 17 at a run a ball.Rain restricted Durham’s reply to half the standard allocation of overs, and a required scoring rate just above five an over was never likely to test them unduly. Captain Stoneman put on 86 in 13.2 overs with wicketkeeper Phil Mustard to take the visitors within sight of victory.Mustard hit three sixes and a four in his innings of 30, from 38 balls, before being bowled by Moneeb Iqbal – who had Gordon Muchall stumped without scoring two balls later.But Stoneman reached a 45-ball half-century containing nine fours, finishing 54 not out from 49, and Stokes came in to hit 13 from eight balls, rounding off victory with his second boundary.

Eoin Morgan warmed up for England’s forthcoming limited-overs series against Australia with a season’s best 90 to inspire his side’s four-wicket win over Leicestershire at Lord’s

26-Aug-2013
ScorecardEoin Morgan made his first half-century of the season in any format•Getty Images

Acting Middlesex captain Eoin Morgan warmed up for England’s forthcoming limited-overs series against Australia with a season’s best 90 to inspire his side’s four-wicket Yorkshire Bank 40 win over Leicestershire at Lord’s.Although neither side could progress from Group C, Morgan caught the eye of England’s national selector Geoff Miller – watching from the media centre – by hitting eight fours and four sixes in a match-defining innings as Middlesex reached their target with10 balls to spare.In pursuit of Leicestershire’s impressive 40-over total of 274 for 8, Middlesex struggled early on under the pressure of an asking rate of 6.88 an over and some tight Leicestershire bowling.Leading scorer Dawid Malan had still to get under way when he followed a delivery from left-arm seamer Rob Taylor to edge to the wicketkeeper. Then, with the total on 22, Paul Stirling aimed an expansive cover drive at Nathan Buck only to drag the ball onto middle stump.The experienced third-wicket pairing of Joe Denly and Morgan regrouped with a partnership worth 72 inside 11 overs that came to a surprise end when Denly chipped a return catch to diving slow left-armer James Sykes.Morgan reached a 43-ball 50 – his first in all forms of cricket in a hugely disappointing domestic season – by chipping six into the Tavern Stand against Josh Cobb. He was just 10 short of his century when a mistimed slog sweep against Shiv Thakor flew to Greg Smith at long-on.Morgan helped add 81 in 10.3 overs for the fourth wicket with Adam Voges during a breezy 63-ball stay, but Voges blotted his copybook by holing out to the same fielder to make it 197 for 5.Needing 77 from their final 10 overs, Middlesex added 60 in 44 balls through debutant Ollie Wilkin and John Simpson before the former cut to backward point with only 18 required. Simpson saw the hosts home with a brisk unbeaten 58 from 39 balls with a six and eight fours, the last of which won the game.Batting first after losing the toss on a bright St John’s Wood afternoon, Leicestershire lost Cobb for six when he miscued to mid-off against England paceman Steve Finn.Leicestershire opener Smith moved smoothly to a 61-ball half-century with four fours and two sixes. But only 11 balls later, Smith perished when attempting to clip spinner Ravi Patel over long-on, spooning to long-off to end a second-wicket stand worth 61 in 13.1 overs with Ned Eckersley.Eckersley was joined by left-hander Matthew Boyce, who took advantage of a short boundary on the Tavern side by twice depositing short deliveries from Patel directly into the Mound Stand.Eckersley also reached 50 from 53 balls and with eight fours but the former MCC Groundstaff player top-edged his pull shot high to Toby Roland-Jones at mid-on to depart for 73. Boyce, having added 95 in 12.2 overs in tandem with Eckersley, became the third visiting player to pass the 50 milestone, his 50 coming from 51 balls.Rookie Middlesex seamer Wilkin claimed his maiden YB40 wicket by removing Boyce for 53 then, four balls later, the 21-year-old made it two for 44 when Michael Thornely flailed outside off to be caught behind for 19. The visitors lost three for 11 in six balls in the quest for late runs, which worsened when Ben Raine was caught at deep extra cover for seven.Yet Middlesex were docked six penalty runs for a slow over rate going into the final over by Harris, which also led to the departure of Thakor to a comfortable catch at long-leg by Finn. The last five legal deliveries of the innings cost 24 runs as Tom Wells threw the bat to plunder two sixes and three fours in a cameo unbeaten 31.

The ICC decided against allowing teams to keep referrals denied on an umpire’s call out of fear the game would be slowed down too much, the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has revealed

Daniel Brettig11-Oct-2013The ICC decided against allowing teams to keep referrals that were denied on an umpire’s call out of fear the game would be slowed down too much, even as it approved the introduction of a DRS “top-up” after 80 overs, the Cricket Australia chief executive James Sutherland has revealed. As he discussed the fall-out from the Nine Network’s decision not to employ Hot Spot during this summer’s Ashes series, Sutherland said the equity of umpire’s call verdicts had been debated “long and hard” by the chief executive’s committee at the most recent ICC meeting.While Hot Spot’s effectiveness and use has been a point of contention since the Ashes Tests in England earlier this year, the loss of referrals to tight decisions that have stayed with the umpire’s original verdict created a similar level of discussion among players, spectators and administrators. Sutherland said it was still possible that such reviews would be handed back to the players, but admitted there was hesitance based on the possibility that the number of reviews may increase substantially.”We debated umpire’s call long and hard, and what was eventually decided was that they wanted to leave that pending for a little while,” Sutherland said. “We agreed to the top-up after 80 overs. That will come back on the agenda, and it’s not a bad idea. The ICC assessment is that if you don’t lose a review for umpire’s call, you will increase the number of referrals by at least double, and that will change the game. Everyone likes the idea of the referral being really valuable, and you need to think really carefully about using it, because it all comes back to the howler.”Sutherland denied that CA needed to step in to the stand-off between Nine and Hot Spot’s ringmaster Warren Brennan, and rejected the notion that Australian cricket’s governing body did not provide financial support in the way of other nations. He said that CA’s rights fees factored in the broadcast costs of Nine, whereas other nations paid for production in-house and then charged at higher odds for the rights themselves. “Indirectly we’re paying for it,” he said.”The first use of Hot Spot was all about broadcast enhancement. And in Australia that’s been something Nine have sponsored and dealt with and had discussions with Warren Brennan and his company in the past, they’ve had arrangements that they’ve used successfully. We’ve never been involved with those discussions and never needed to be. That continues to be a commercial negotiation between those two.”I’ve spoken with [Nine chief] David Gyngell about it, I know and understand from Nine’s viewpoint they’re not walking away from that and see it as an ongoing discussion. They certainly have concerns about Hot Spot in various ways, both commercially and in an operational capacity, and it’s something they will work through. They’ve been able to sort it out in the past, so let’s see if they can sort it out. This is still six weeks out from the series, it’s not a unique circumstance where Nine and Hot Spot have had discussions about broadcast enhancements.”Debates about DRS have ranged from whether the system should be used at all to which technology is most reliable and which system makes the best use of it. Sutherland saw a tension around the issue of how much accuracy should be demanded from technology that will always have a certain margin of error, no matter how small.”The biggest problem is what is your satisfaction level about imperfection,” he said. “We can all say ‘we know it’s not perfect’, but someone’s acceptance of imperfect might be here and another’s is 99.9%. That area of grey in between those two extremes is where this system gets into trouble. Not saying this is true, but as an example, do you accept the fact that if 80% of the time a nick will show on Hot Spot, but you know that 20% of the time it won’t – do you accept that or not?”

Liam Norwell returned career-best figures of 6 for 33 to help guide Gloucestershire to a nine-wicket victory over Essex, their first victory at Chelmsford since 1930.

Press Association05-May-2015
ScorecardLiam Norwell claimed 10 wickets in a match for the first time in his career, including an innings best•Getty Images

Liam Norwell returned career-best figures of 6 for 33 to help guide Gloucestershire to a nine-wicket victory over Essex, their first victory at Chelmsford since 1930.Norwell found lift to undermine Essex’s second innings as the hosts were bowled out for 199 after resuming on 91 for 4 to set Gloucestershire 114 to win the match. Half centuries from openers Chris Dent and Will Tavare ensured Gloucestershire reached the victory target with ease to earn their first win of the season.Norwell had Essex in trouble early on during the morning session when he bowled James Foster without him adding to his overnight 13. The 23-year-old fast bowler, who took four wickets in 16 balls in the first innings, quickly followed that by finding a way through the defence of Greg Smith, leaving Essex relying on Kishen Velani and Graham Napier – the last of their recognised batsmen – to launch a recovery.But it never materialised. Napier had scored only 4 when he cut a wide delivery from Craig Miles into the hands of Dent at second slip to give him his fifth catch of the match.Velani did his best to keep the innings afloat with several well-timed drives and deflections off his legs. The 20-year-old reached his first Championship half-century, from 81 balls, before he and Adeel Malik were sent packing in the same over by fast bowler David Payne. Both offered up simple catches to Peter Handscomb in the covers, leaving Norwell to bring the innings to a close by bowling Jamie Porter to finish with match figures of 10 for 65 – a maiden 10-wicket haul.It left Gloucestershire with a modest target to reel in their first Championship triumph of the season – and the Essex bowlers needing to perform heroics if they were to prevent them from doing so. But it quickly became obvious that the visitors were in no mood to surrender the initiative Norwell had given them.Tavare and Dent made sure of that with a series of well-struck strokes either side of the wicket. Tavare completed his half-century, from 57 deliveries, with a sumptuous cover-drive off Porter. The bowler gained some consolation when the opener turned the ball into the hands of Dan Lawrence, but by then the visitors were only eight runs shy of victory.Dent dispatched Malik to the ropes in the 21st over to record his second half-century of the match before he secured victory with a single off Porter in the very next over. Gloucestershire collected 19 points from the match, with Essex earning three.After watching his side record their first win of the season, Gloucestershire head coach Richard Dawson said: “I think it was a good cricket wicket.All our bowlers performed exceptionally well over the three days and for a squad of young bowlers, their performance was very encouraging. We bowled with discipline and we were consistent in the way we were hitting our lengths. We’ve been asking for improvements from our bowlers and they’ve done it.”But it was the overall team performance which has given me a lot of satisfaction. Chris Dent batted exceptionally well in both innings and Pete Handscomb’s first innings score and his partnership with David Payne helped give us what was a an important first innings lead. We’ve also fielded better than we have done recently so I can’t fault the lads for their performance.”Essex Head coach Paul Grayson saw his side slump to their first defeat of the campaign: “We’ve played some outstanding four-day cricket over the last 12 games or so and at some stage, we were bound to lose a game. In this game after the first hour, Gloucestershire have been the better side. We beat Kent here, we played well at The Oval against Surrey last week and maybe this defeat is a kick up the backside for us. We won’t beat ourselves up and we’ll learn from what’s happened in this game.”

A licence to “go out and have a swing” lay at the heart of England’s remarkable rebirth in the first ODI at Edgbaston, according to Jos Buttler

Andrew Miller10-Jun-20153:46

‘England have never had an ODI batsman like Jos Buttler’

A licence to “go out and have a swing” lay at the heart of England’s remarkable rebirth in the first ODI at Edgbaston, according to Jos Buttler, the Man of the Match who swung harder and more flamboyantly than any of his team-mates.Four months on from their World Cup drubbing at the hands of Brendon McCullum’s New Zealand, and with their one-day fortunes so low that anything other than a full-frontal assault on their previously timid ODI reputation would have been a dereliction of duty, England successfully transplanted the gung-ho attitude that had served them so well in the first Test at Lord’s to rack up both their highest score in ODI history, 408, and their largest margin of victory, 210 runs.And Buttler’s role in that result was not simply limited to the personal glut of runs he recorded, vast though it was. His 129 from 77 balls, including a 66-ball century, means he now owns both of the fastest hundreds in England’s one-day history, following his 61-ball effort against Sri Lanka at Lord’s last year.Every bit as important was Buttler’s refusal to deviate from his natural game after England had slumped from 171 for 2 to 202 for 6 in the 30th over. It was the sort of hiccup that might, only a few months ago, have persuaded the World Cup team to retreat into its shell and bat out their overs.However, Buttler said, not only would that attitude have been pointless against a team as aggressive as New Zealand, he and his team-mates sensed a desire from the cricket-watching public for the players to break their shackles and have a go.Jos Buttler’s century came off just 66 balls – the second fastest by an England batsman•Getty Images

“We couldn’t have had more of a licence to go and get bowled out for 150 in 20 overs today,” Buttler said. “Everybody in this room wanted it, English cricket, the paying public and everybody who watches this sport.”I think that is a big change – everyone has accepted that English cricket can do that and I think if we were bowled out for 200 in 30 overs today, I don’t we would have been criticised that much, either. So we had a real lease of life to go and play that way.”It’s a lease of life, if truth be told, that England’s coming generation has been itching to embark upon for months. The joie de vivre shown by Buttler was set in motion by his fellow centurion, Joe Root, who refused to be cowed by the loss of Jason Roy to the very first ball of the match as he clattered along to his own remarkable slice of a record-breaking performance, 104 from 78 balls.That pair’s approaches won the plaudits, but their attitude echoed down the order. Root’s partner in a tempo-setting second-wicket stand of 50 was Alex Hales, whose Twitter account has, throughout a frustrating year of bench-warming, declared he is a “FOMO sufferer”. However, in the new England culture, he needs no longer to have that Fear Of Missing Out as his forthright methods are sure, finally, to be indulged.Sam Billings, on debut, didn’t quite come off but Adil Rashid – in his first outing for five years – was a revelation with bat and ball, only weeks after he had been overlooked on the tour of the Caribbean on the assumption that he wasn’t yet ready to be trusted. And equally heartening was the thrusting return of Steven Finn, shed of the reticence that allowed McCullum to destroy him at Wellington, and restored to the role of attack leader for which he had been earmarked since the tour of Bangladesh in 2010.England’s efforts were aided, to a degree, by the relentless aggression that has become the hallmark of New Zealand’s captain, McCullum, who challenged England to hit their way out of a corner with attacking fields and the arguable over-use of Trent Boult, in the absence of his fellow spearhead, Tim Southee, at the top end of the innings.But with the horrors of Wellington so fresh in England minds, when Southee’s seven wickets and McCullum’s own 77 from 25 balls condemned them to defeat with more than 37 overs left unbowled, it was hugely to England’s credit that they were able to distance themselves from such raw mental scars.”We don’t want to get carried away at one performance and think like English ODI is fixed and we’re going to win the World Cup,” Buttler said. “But I think just looking round – the two training days were really exciting, watching what some of these guys can do in the nets, the energy they have brought to the group. There’s definitely been an extra buzz.”Everyone has seen in county cricket how guys like Jason Roy and Sam Billings have played innings that make people stand up and take notice. When they do that in international cricket, there will be a wider audience taking note. When we realise the potential of everyone as a group and can all do that at the same time, it will be a really exciting place to be.”But on the day, Buttler was the man who made it all possible, by trusting his talent and his instinct, and picking up where he had left off in a remarkable match-seizing T20 Blast onslaught in the Roses match on Friday.His innings did include a period of consolidation, but not as we have known it from England teams in the past. Buttler took 28 balls to record his first boundary but the upshot of his relative caution was a world-record 177 for the seventh wicket with Rashid that kept the innings motoring along even in apparent adversity.”At 200 for 6 we kept going,” said Buttler. “But I tried to take low-risk options. I wanted to score at a run-a-ball, you always do, that’s what my method is, but hitting the ball on the floor to start with.”I hit a couple through the slips and, if those chances are taken, we could potentially have been all out for 250. But if you scrape up to 250 in 50 overs, that’s not going to win you too many games any more. So you have to be looking at 300-plus at least.”New Zealand were bowled out in 30-odd overs but they had to keep going. There’s no point just knocking the ball around and taking 280. You play to win.”The obvious frustration is that this has all come four months too late to impact on England’s desperate World Cup showing but it would require a heart of stone not to warm to such a no-holds-barred reinvention, especially when it comes replete with the sort of jaw-dropping 360-degree strokeplay that Buttler was able to unfurl in the latter overs of his innings.”It wasn’t through a lack of trying before, it’s not as if we wanted to play that [badly],” Buttler said. “We weren’t playing well enough. If we weren’t going to go out and have a swing when could we?””I’m sure we’ll have some challenges going forward as well, especially in this series against a top side who will come back and keep fighting like the way they do and playing very aggressive cricket,” he added. “So there are some big challenges ahead but today was a great day and one that we should really enjoy.”

All-rounder Con de Lange and 19-year-old batsman Andrew Umeed have been named in Scotland’s 13-man squad for their Intercontinental Cup fixture against Afghanistan, beginning on June 2 in Stirling

ESPNcricinfo staff29-May-2015All-rounder Con de Lange and 19-year-old batsman Andrew Umeed have been named in Scotland’s 13-man squad for their Intercontinental Cup fixture against Afghanistan on June 2 in Stirling, which will host its maiden first-class match.De Lange, the 34-year old left-arm spinner, played most of his first-class cricket in South Africa, but is eligible for his first Scotland cap after completing a four-year residency. Umeed’s inclusion comes on the heels of his twin half-centuries for Scotland XI in their crushing defeat of UAE.Scotland’s squad also features the Durham duo of Calum MacLeod and Gavin Main, while Preston Mommsen, who scored a hundred against UAE, will lead the side. They will, however, be without the services of Kyle Coetzer, Josh Davey, Matt Machan, Ruaidhri Smith and Rob Taylor.”This is the first step in an exciting opportunity to push our case for Test status,” head coach Grant Bradburn said. “We’ve got an exciting mix of youth and experience in our side and we will be looking to put the opposition under pressure in our home conditions at Stirling, which we know well.”Scotland squad: Preston Mommsen (capt), Richie Berrington, Matthew Cross, Freddie Coleman, Con de Lange, Alasdair Evans, Hamish Gardiner, Michael Leask, Calum MacLeod, Gavin Main, Safyaan Sharif, Andrew Umeed, Mark Watt.

Suresh Raina has said India arriving at full-strength is an indication of “how important a series this is for us”

Alagappan Muthu in Dhaka16-Jun-20151:09

‘Important game between India and Bangladesh’ – Raina

Suresh Raina has said India arriving at full-strength for the three ODIs against Bangladesh is an indication of “how important a series this is for us.”There had been considerable attention given to the Indian squad the last time they were in Bangladesh. In June 2014, eight first-choice players were rested for a three-ODI tour and seven of them are part of this one. The seven players – MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, R Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar – were kept busy in the nets at the academy ground of the Shere Bangla National Stadium two days out from the first game.Last year, Raina had to juggle a comeback into the national side while captaining it. He had to explain that the men who were picked had proven themselves in domestic cricket. There was no such need this time.”Yes definitely. You saw that after the IPL, the full Test team came and now the full ODI team has come,” Raina said. “Bangladesh have done well in ODIs recently, and this shows how important a series this is for us. We have done well in ODIs recently, and we are looking forward to it.”The threat Bangladesh pose also factored into that. They have whitewashed Zimbabwe and Pakistan and appear their most settled in 50-over cricket. Among their resources is fast bowler Taskin Ahmed, who celebrated his ODI debut by running through India’s batting order with figures of 5 for 28. He took 3 for 69 at the World Cup quarter-final, also against India.”He bowled really well in the World Cup,” Raina said of Taskin. “They also have Mashrafe Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal, who’s batting really well, and Shakib Al Hasan. They have lots of youngsters and they did really well in the World Cup.”If you ask me about our team, we have done really well in one-days over the years. We are looking to enjoy each and every game. We’re here to play cricket, and we’ll be focusing on our strengths. The team has been working really hard. We have one more practice session tomorrow and hopefully all set for the game tomorrow.”The series was scheduled with reserve days, keeping in mind the monsoon in Bangladesh. All three matches during the last bilateral series had been affected by rain. Wet weather is expected to play a part again, but Raina said the extra day would help in trying to salvage a result.”It’s a good thing because if the match can’t get over on the first day, we have a day in reserve,” Raina said. “But it means we’ll have to think of two days. The rain is not in our hands. We have had a good batting and bowling session and we’ll go and field now. We’ll have a good meeting afterwards and once the match starts we’ll be focussed. The weather is not in our hands.”

James Ngoche, the Kenya offspinner, has been suspended from bowling in international cricket after the ICC found his action to be illegal

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Jul-2015James Ngoche, the Kenya offspinner, has been suspended from bowling in international cricket after the ICC found his action to be illegal.Umpires reported his action after Kenya’s match against Oman in the ICC World T20 Qualifier on July 11. Ngoche bowled three overs in Kenya’s seven-run win in Edinburgh, picking up a wicket and conceding 21 runs. An event bowling action review panel, appointed by the ICC to attend the World T20 Qualifier, found his action to be illegal.Ngoche will be suspended until he submits himself to independent assessment at an ICC accredited testing facility and gets his action cleared.Ngoche, 27, made his Kenya debut in 2010. He has 20 wickets from 17 ODIs at an average of 28.45 and four wickets in 7 T20Is at 35.00 and an economy rate of 5.83.

Vithushan Ehantharajah at Lord's09-Aug-2015
ScorecardDawid Malan helped build Middlesex’s lead•Getty Images

When Dawid Malan returned from a 10-week lay-off after breaking a bone in his hand while fielding on the first day of the season, Middlesex head coach Richard Scott had one “simple” request upon his return: “Look, go big.” Truth be told, it did not need to be said, least of all to Malan – a player worthy of the selectors’ eye who at times has been guilty of wanting “it” too much.In the context of this relatively low scoring encounter, on a Lord’s surface that started in favour of the spinners and looks set to finish at the mercy of the spinners, Malan has produced two commendable knocks in both situations against a Sussex attack that have offered little respite.His first innings 93 showed his capacity to rebuild – something he has developed – while his century today (a second of the season), off 172 balls and featuring seven fours, showcased his match-awareness. He has now scored a century against Sussex in the Championship, NatWest Blasdt and Royal London Cup this season.Sitting unbeaten on 118 – with a season average of over 100 – he has helped Middlesex to a lead of 260 by ensuring his side had batted the day out. There is some rain around tomorrow morning which might force Middlesex to declare, but there is also the very real possibility that Sussex whittle out the remaining two wickets for not many to establish themselves as favourites.That the game finds itself at this juncture is down to the fact that neither team has let the game slide. In the grand scheme of things, Middlesex have set out to do what they wanted: to bat out the whole day and establish a lead in excess of 250, ebbing away the Sussex morale in the process. But it was an objective that the visitors did everything in their power to prevent.In the first two sessions, each time Middlesex looked to put daylight between them and Sussex, skipper Ed Joyce and his bowlers landed telling blows to keep them in check.Sam Robson continued his pro-active approach from last night to move to 77 at an impressive strike-rate of 73.33, before he nicked the left-arm spinner Ashar Zaidi behind, before the Sussex man changed ends and took out Nick Compton’s leg stump.Then Steve Magoffin, after getting Nick Gubbins caught behind – the ball seemingly coming off the opener’s sleeve – registered his 500th first class wicket when a fine delivery drew James Franklin forward and left him, to Joyce at first slip.Perhaps the moment that best highlighted the fight from Sussex came in the dregs of the middle session. With Malan and John Simpson taking the Middlesex towards a lead of 150 with a partnership of 78 from the dismissal of Franklin, Joyce turned to Ollie Robinson from the Pavilion End. But, instead of the seam-bowling allrounder marking his full run-up, Robinson took five paces back, at an angle, and turned for what would be the first of 31 deliveries of off-spin delivered today.At the time, there was an element of confusion. While he has bowled off-spin previously this season, the game was still in the balance and the move to a bit-part spinner, when Zaidi had excelled from that very end and Luke Wells was causing discomfort with his leg spin, seemed odd. However, come stumps, it had earned him three wickets.It is a bit more than a party trick: Robinson had spent most of his childhood as an off-break bowler, only turning to pace “in the last four or five years”. While he mostly works on his seam bowling – a necessity given the number of injuries Sussex have in that department – he does take time to practice spin, including this morning when he became aware that it may be required as the day drew on.Malan felt that Robinson turned the ball more than anyone today. “Some say you never lose it,” joked the bowling allrounder/part-time off-spinner at close, while also wondering if he had missed a trick by not continuing with it as a full-time pursuit. He has had to take on a great deal of the fast bowling workloads as one of the few still fit. “To be honest, my shins are absolutely killing me!”His first wicket was probably the best of the lot, drifting the ball perfectly onto a length that drew Simpson forward: the ball then turning down the slope and catching the left-hander’s edge for a routine catch to Joyce at first slip. The second, from over the wicket this time, saw James Harris work the ball around the corner to Chris Nash at leg-slip for a most unwanted pair. And it would be Robinson who would bring the day to a close, returning after five overs of pace with the new ball to trap Toby Roland-Jones lbw, thus ending a 77-run partnership.Roland-Jones cut a disgruntled figure, remaining still at the crease, even as the bails had been the removed, shocked by the decision that came his way. There was little sympathy from the Sussex fielders, who believed they had cut Malan off on 93 for the second time in this match when he attempted a dab sweep off Zaidi.The fielders populated the middle of the pitch in appeal and premature celebration, believing there was some bat through to Ben Brown, who had an excellent day behind the stumps in testing conditions.

Craig Overton has received an automatic two-match suspension after an ECB cricket discipline commission examined a ditsurbing disciplinary record which has brought three umpiring reports in a single season

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Sep-2015Craig Overton has received an automatic two-match suspension after an ECB cricket discipline commission examined a disturbing disciplinary record which has brought three umpiring reports in a single season.The suspension is a blow to Somerset, who are not yet safe from relegation, and will cause further concern about the on-field behaviour of Overton, who has been called up, along with his brother Jamie, for an England fast bowlers camp in South Africa in November.Overton was reported by umpires Alex Wharf and Ian Gould during Somerset’s LV= Championship match against Sussex this week for a Level One breach of the directives: using language that is obscene, offensive or insulting and/or making an obscene gesture.He has now received a total of nine penalty points and is suspended from Somerset’s Championship match against Warwickshire on 22-25 September 2015 and also from the first match in the 2016 programme. Somerset meet Warwickshire at Taunton, and although they lie sixth they still need seven points to be assured of safety irrespective of other results.Overton had previously breached the fixed penalty directives on two occasions in 2015. The penalty for a further breach at Level 1 within 24 months is three penalty points. These penalty points will remain on his record for a period of two years.