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The defending champions had looked like taking a strong lead, but ended up in trouble themselves later in the day

AAP and ESPNcricinfo staff06-Oct-2025Peter Handscomb reminded Test selectors of his talents, scoring another Sheffield Shield century against South Australia.After the Victoria captain top scored with 103 on Monday at Adelaide Oval and declared seven runs behind the home side, a crucial sixth-wicket stand rescued the day for SA.Related

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Daniel Drew (42 not out) and Harry Nielsen (41 not out) took SA from a precarious 82 for 5 to 169 for 5 at stumps, a lead of 176 going into the last day.Resuming on 38 with the score 167 for 3, Handscomb anchored the Victorian innings on day three. In reply to SA’s 350, they were in trouble at 199 for 6 before Handscomb combined with Fergus O’Neill for a seventh-wicket stand of 125.Spinner Lloyd Pope had O’Neill caught-and-bowled for 64 and Pope dismissed Handscomb, caught by Jordan Buckingham in the deep for the eighth wicket.Handscomb, whose most recent Test was in March 2023, faced 180 balls and hit seven fours and two sixes. Half of his 18 Shield tons have been against SA.SA steadily lost early wickets in their second innings. After a duck on the opening day, No.3 and Test hopeful Nathan McSweeney was dismissed for 6 when he edged a pull against David Moody.Opener Henry Hunt and Jake Lehmann starred with centuries in SA’s first innings. But when impressive Victorian left-arm spinner Doug Warren dismissed them in successive overs – Hunt top-edging a sweep and Lehmann bowled through the gate on the drive – the home side was five down for not nearly enough.That brought together Drew and Nielsen, who grew in confidence as they batted through to stumps.

He played 44 Tests between 1958 and 1969 and was named one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year in 1970

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Dec-2019Basil Butcher, the stylish Guyana and West Indies batsman of the 1950s and 1960s, died on Monday in Florida following a long illness aged 86. He played 44 Tests between 1958 and 1969, scoring 3104 runs at an average of 43.11, and was named one of Wisden’s Cricketers of the Year in 1970.Of his seven Test hundreds, Butcher is best remembered for his second-innings 133 – in the 1963 Lord’s Test against England – which is often rated as one of the greatest matches to have been played at the ground. He made those runs against an England attack led by Fred Trueman after having learnt of his wife’s miscarriage just moments before walking out to bat.Three years later, Butcher posted his highest Test score of 209 not out, against England in Nottingham. It helped West Indies overhaul a first-innings deficit of 90 to win by 139 runs. It was in 1958-59 that Butcher, understood to be the first player of Amerindian descent to represent West Indies, first made his mark in West Indies colours. Against India, he scored 486 runs at 69.42 in his debut series, but fell away for the next few seasons. He then returned to the side in 1963 for the England tour, and was a regular fixture in the team after that till his retirement. After Richie Benaud, the Australian legspinner, played West Indies in two series in that period, he said Butcher was the most difficult of all West Indian batsmen to dismiss.Butcher, in fact, bowled some legspin himself. All of his five Test wickets came in one innings when he claimed 5 for 34 against England at Port of Spain in 1967-68.Butcher was born on September 3, 1933 and was raised on a sugar estate outside the village of Port Mourant in what was then known as British Guiana. He was a neighbour of Alvin Kallicharan’s family and future West Indies team-mates Rohan Kanhai and Joe Solomon lived nearby too. To support his cricket career that began at Port Mourant Sports Club, he worked as a teacher, an insurance salesman, a clerk, and a welfare officer. After his retirement, he ran a bauxite company in Guyana.

Study reveals potentially devastating loss of council-run cricket pitches in wake of Covid-19 outbreak

Andrew Miller15-Jun-2020The ECB has been challenged to do more to ensure its junior participation schemes are made relevant to the South Asian cricketing community, following a new study that has revealed a potentially devastating reduction in council-run cricket pitches in the wake of the Covid-19 outbreak.Writing in the National Asian Cricket Council newsletter, chairman Gulfraz Riaz cited the findings of a recent report by the Grounds Management Association, which estimates that cricket – with its specialised requirements for pitch maintenance – could be the hardest-hit sport in the UK post-Covid, with more than half of its playing capacity lost in the coming decade, compared to a fifth for rugby and football.And this, in turn, could put huge pressure on the Asian cricketing community, which is estimated to represent between 30 and 35% of all active cricketers in the UK, but – unlike the club structure of traditional English cricket – is based overwhelmingly on a complex network of parks leagues that the ECB, through its county boards, has so far struggled to support through the pandemic.Writing in the newsletter, Riaz says that the Covid outbreak has had a “hugely detrimental and potentially even longer-lasting effect on the South Asian Parks Cricketing Community (SAPCC) up and down the country,” and adds that, while the community remains self-sufficient for now, “the first small signs of cracks have started to appear” in the decades-old league structures, not least because young British Asians are as tempted as their white-British counterparts by alternative forms of recreation.”The problems at hand are two-fold,” Riaz wrote. “Firstly in terms of very real and meaningful engagement with the next generation of young Asian players and secondly the unfortunate case of still being left to play on substandard local authority grounds and facilities. These are incredibly alarming signs [but] something actually we should not be too surprised to see.”ALSO READ: Almanack Archive: Winds of change blow through British Asian cricketThe ECB launched the South Asian Action Plan in May 2018 with the aim of engaging more effectively with South Asian communities at every level of the game. And while the board admitted from the outset that there was no “quick fix” to the status quo, it has since invested significantly in the sort of publicly-accessible facilities that the parks leagues rely on, including a new partnership in Manchester that will deliver 92 new all-weather pitches across every borough of the city.However, recreational cricket in England and Wales remains suspended indefinitely due to the pandemic, which means that the ECB’s hopes of building on the extraordinary success of last summer’s World Cup and Ashes series have also taken a hit.And while Riaz acknowledged that the ECB’s All-Stars programme, aimed at 5 to 8-year-olds, and the new Dynamos scheme for 8 to 11-year-olds were “very welcome additions”, he warned that their club-based points of delivery meant that the parks leagues had been “bypassed” on that front.”It is absolutely imperative therefore that the drivers of these programmes listen, understand and find very real and meaningful ways to directly engage with the cricketing heads from these leagues,” he wrote, “and most importantly get a grip in helping sustain and grow cricket within the SAPCC and youngsters from this important section of the national cricketing community.”The UK economy shrank by more than 20% in April due to the Covid lockdown, and speaking to ESPNcricinfo, Riaz acknowledged that local authorities could not be expected to prioritise council-run cricket pitches over and above other key public services, such as maintaining highway verges and cemeteries.But, he added, the economic downturn was bound to have knock-on effects on Asian participation in particular when cricket does resume, and stressed that, two years on from the launch of the South Asian Action Plan, it was the duty of county boards to find a way to ensure that the ECB’s offers of financial support during the pandemic were able to filter down to the parks communities.”The driving force for the Asian cricket community are its leagues,” said Riaz. “These are made up of teams drawn up from taxi ranks and restaurants. They are not constituted, they don’t have bank accounts, they are set up in an individual’s name, and that causes problems when funding needs to be transferred.”Asian cricket has previously thrived on a pay-as-you-play structure,” he added. “These teams don’t have gas and electricity bills – they don’t even have clubhouses – so in some ways they are immune to the economics. But if these same players are obliged to put food on the table rather than play cricket when their businesses do reopen, then we will be looking at a huge decline in numbers.”Responding to the points raised, a ECB spokesman told ESPNcricinfo that the board was committed to making all of its programmes welcoming and diverse as part of the South Asian Action Plan. Citing the initiative in Manchester, he added that 17 of those new pitches would be introduced in parks and playing fields in Greater Manchester this year, and that, nationally, 549 female South Asian volunteers had so far been recruited to help deliver the All Stars programme in key inner-city areas.”We continue to talk regularly to our County Cricket Boards (CCBs) and our leagues and clubs across the country to understand the needs of those reliant on public facilities as the social restrictions begin to ease, to offer support and to match them with additional cricket facilities where appropriate,” the spokesman added.

The selectors also decided it was better for Cameron Green to remain at home to prepare for next season

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jun-2021Australia will again have uncertainty over Steven Smith’s elbow heading into a major tournament after he was ruled out of the tours to West Indies and Bangladesh.Smith has suffered a recurrence of the problem he had earlier this year and kept him out of action for a period in February and March before he went to the IPL.He returned to action briefly for New South Wales in late March before heading to India and the issue has now flared up again after his stint with Delhi Capitals where he played six matches before the tournament was suspended.It is the same elbow that required surgery in early 2019 while Smith was still serving his ban from international cricket and briefly raised doubts as to whether he would be fit for that year’s one-day World Cup.There are still four months before the T20 World Cup but although a timeline for Smith’s recovery has yet to be mapped out having him fit for the twin tilts at the global title then the Ashes is the priority.Related

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“Unfortunately I can’t tell you how long or how serious it is but it’s something he’s had before and definitely flared up again in the IPL,” national selector Trevor Hohns said. “How long it will take to get it completely right I can’t tell you at the moment, I’ve had no further advice on that, but the main thing is for Steven from our view is to make sure he is fit for the T20 World Cup and of course the Ashes.”Smith would likely bat at No. 3 in the T20I side – although that can be flexible depending on the game situation – and is locked in at No. 4 in the Test team.Another player being managed with an eye on the home summer is allrounder Cameron Green who was added to the large preliminary white-ball squad before it was decided he would not make the trip.He will instead start pre-season with Western Australia with an eye to having a strong lead-in to Test against Afghanistan then the Ashes in the Sheffield Shield, something that those Test players involved in the T20 World Cup won’t be able to do as they quarantine for two weeks after the tournament before going straight into the Afghanistan game in Hobart in late November.Green played all four Tests against India last season where he impressed with the bat, hitting 84 in the second innings at the SCG, but was unable to pick up a wicket. He struggled to have an impact with the ball throughout the summer as he made his way back from a stress fracture of the bat but, barring a major downturn early next season, appears set to take the No. 6 spot again.”At the moment we thought best to leave him here and prepare for the upcoming summer,” Hohns said. “We regard him as a very important component of our Test side who we’ll select in our Ashes squad. He can have a nice winter off, start training and building himself especially for our red-ball cricket.”

Players, match officials and TV crew will now be isolated in the hotel and retested

Andrew McGlashan22-Jul-2021The second ODI between West Indies and Australia was postponed moments before the first ball after a positive Covid test emerged from the West Indies camp to leave the remainder of this tour and upcoming series for both teams in doubt.The toss had taken place and teams named – with Riley Meredith handed a debut – when the test result came through sending both squads, match officials and TV crew into isolation at the hotel.”The second CG Insurance ODI between West Indies and Australia has been postponed due to a positive COVID-19 test result from a non-playing member of the West Indies staff,” a CWI statement said. “This decision was taken after the toss at Kensington Oval once the result was known.”The established COVID-19 protocols stipulate that all members of both teams and match officials will return immediately to the team hotel and will be re-tested later today. They will remain in isolation in their hotel rooms until their PCR-Test results are returned.”A decision on when the match will be replayed will be made at a later date once all the test results are confirmed.”Johnny Grave, the Cricket West Indies CEO, said that it was hoped the results of the fresh round of tests would be known by Friday morning.A Cricket Australia spokesman added: “The Australian squad has returned to the team hotel and is in in-room isolation. No further comment will be made at this stage.”The status of the current game, given the toss had taken place, remains to be confirmed. The match carries World Cup Super League points.The events will put the remainder of this series in doubt with the final ODI scheduled to take place on Saturday and will also throw uncertainty over Australia heading to Bangladesh for the five-match T20I series which was confirmed yesterday.After this series West Indies are due to face Pakistan in a five-match T20I series followed by two Tests. Pakistan arrived in Barbados, where the first two T20Is are scheduled to be played, on Wednesday after their tour of England.West Indies have previously been impacted by Covid while playing with Hayden Walsh Jr testing positive on the tour of Bangladesh earlier in the year.It is the first time Australia have been directly involved during the pandemic since cricket resumed. They toured England last year before hosting India in their home summer and then visiting New Zealand for T20Is. Their Test tour to South Africa in February was postponed due to concerns around Covid-19.A number of players from both teams were involved in the IPL when it was suspended in May.

Composed Durham strengthen quarter-finals credentials with fourth win of season

ECB Reporters Network06-Jun-2023 Durham 162 for 6 (Clark 55, Heldreich 3-36) beat Northamptonshire 161 for 7 (Gay 53, Sowter 4-14) by four wicketsNathan Sowter and Graham Clark haunted Northamptonshire Steelbacks for the second time in the Vitality Blast this season after guiding Durham to a four-wicket win at Seat Unique Riverside.Sowter followed his figures of 5 for 15 against the Steelbacks in the reverse fixture with another brilliant spell of 4 for 14 to limit the visitors to 161 for 7 from their 20 overs. Emilio Gay top-scored with a career-best 53, but he lacked support from the rest of the line-up to produce a daunting total for the hosts to chase.Clark delivered an emphatic performance at the top of the innings against the Steelbacks following his century from the opener. His knock of 55 provided the foundation for the chase that was threatened by three wickets from Freddie Heldreich. But, Durham held their composure to strengthen their credentials for a quarter-final place with their fourth win of the season.The visitors solidly started in the powerplay without dominating the Durham attack. Gay was the early pacesetter, impressing with his striking down the ground, including back-to-back boundaries against Luke Robinson. Chris Lynn made a slow start to his knock but brought up the fifty stand with a fine cut behind point to the fence.After clearing the rope for the first time, the Australian was starting to find his range, only to fall for 24 to a brilliant diving catch from Liam Trevaskis at long-off to hand Sowter the breakthrough. Sowter was then responsible for the second wicket as Josh Cobb got himself in a mighty tangle after surviving an lbw shout and was run out by Ashton Turner.Gay continued to play the anchor role and brought up his maiden T20 fifty from 38 balls to position his side for a late surge over the 150-run mark. But Sowter continued to torment the Steelbacks line-up after taking five wickets in the reverse fixture.He prised out David Willey and bowled Saif Zaib to put the clamps on the visitors. The leg-spinner ended his spell with his fourth scalp as Gay was caught on the boundary for 53, taking his ninth wicket in two games against Northants for the cost of just 29 runs.The Steelbacks scrambled to a competitive total of 161 for 7 courtesy of useful late cameos from AJ Tye and Tom Taylor.Northants missed a golden opportunity to set the Durham chase back in the second over when Taylor put down a simple chance at short midwicket to dismiss Alex Lees. The Durham skipper and Clark surged past their fifty partnership at the end of the powerplay, moving ahead of the required rate courtesy of a huge six by the latter.Heldreich earned brief respite for the visitors by breaking the stand with his first ball, pinning Lees lbw for 30.Clark followed in the footsteps of his team-mate Sowter by defying the Steelbacks again. After scoring his maiden T20 century at Wantage Road in the first match of the competition, he proved equally destructive on home soil, powering his way to fifty from 25 balls.Heldreich kept the visitors in with a shout of hauling back the hosts working in tandem with a miserly spell from Saif Zaib, removing Michael Jones and the key wicket of Clark for 55. Zaib then cranked up the pressure when Ollie Robinson was caught on the fence, ending his four-over spell for one for 17.Turner eased the tension for the hosts and all but carried them over the line with a vital knock of 31 from 18. Liam Trevaskis wrapped up proceedings by smashing Tye over the rope before the contest was ended by a wide.