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“Both cricket boards will now look for a new window for the tour when the situation improves” – PCB

Mohammad Isam10-Apr-2021Pakistan Under-19 team’s tour of Bangladesh has been called off due to a surge of Covid-19 cases in the country, the PCB has confirmed.Bangladesh recorded 6854 cases of the virus on Friday, including 74 deaths. Following the spike in infections, the government had announced a strict week-long lockdown starting from April 14.”After the Bangladesh government announced a nationwide lockdown at the beginning of the month, the departure of the team was rescheduled for Saturday April 17,” the PCB said in a statement. “However, since the Covid-19 situation in Bangladesh has not improved, the lockdown has been further extended by the Bangladesh Government, causing an indefinite postponement of Pakistan U19’s tour.”Both cricket boards will now look for a new window for the tour when the situation improves in Bangladesh, details of which will be shared in due course.”The tour was initially delayed by four days but now the PCB has said that they will look at another window.The teams were scheduled to play a four-day match as well as five youth ODIs, which would have been the first Under-19 international series since the 2020 World Cup. Bangladesh, the defending champions, have now missed two Under-19 series, against Afghanistan and Pakistan.Bangladesh’s first-class competition has already been postponed after two rounds, and the 2019-20 Dhaka Premier League, originally set to resume from May 6, is looking unlikely with an extended lockdown looming in the country.

Kings XI batsman credits Stoinis for telling impact

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Sep-2020Crestfallen after losing their IPL opener, Kings XI Punjab batsman Mayank Agarwal said it feels terrible to not close off the game after making a stupendous comeback against Delhi Capitals.Chasing 158 to win, Kings XI were struggling at 55 for 5, until Agarwal turned it around with a fine counter-attack after a slow start. He made his IPL best of 89 and fell with Kings XI needing one run off the final ball. Then, Marcus Stoinis, who had effected a sensational turnaround with the bat for Delhi Capitals, forced the match into a Super Over by dismissing Chris Jordan off the last ball.”We had a tough day,” Agarwal told . “There are a lot of positives to take out. The way we came back was fantastic, the way we bowled with the new ball was terrific. It really hurts to not close off the game from the situation we were in, feels terrible.”This is just the first game. We can get things rolling again. Let’s see how we will go in the coming games. I think to play a game like that first up was fantastic. Everyone was up for it. The guys really put in the effort. Definitely, we should have finished the game when we needed one run.”Agarwal also observed the target – albeit 20-25 more than what Kings XI looked like chasing – was still gettable. “It was a par score and going into the break, we knew that if we can stitch a partnership and not give them wickets with the new ball, we could win the game,” Agarwal said. “We batted extremely well to reach there. I don’t know what to say (about the final moments).”Agarwal also praised Stoinis for his 21-ball 53 that helped Capitals smash 57 off the last three overs. Stoinis was particularly harsh on Chris Jordan, who was hit for two sixes and three four in an over that went for 30 runs. “Stoinis batted extremely well,” Agarwal said. “Even if we made a little mistake, he took us apart. So credit to him and he had a great game and he did really did well for them at the death.”Axar Patel, the Capitals left-arm spinner, was equally effusive in his praise Stoinis. Patel himself had an excellent outing, keeping a lid on the scoring with his loopy variations – something he’s only developed recently – after R Ashwin had to go off the field with an injured shoulder. Patel finished with creditable figures of 1 for 14 off his four overs.”If the team wants to go with six bowlers then you need an all-rounder and if he can contribute with both bat and ball it’s really good for the team,” Patel said. “Stoinis performing like this in the first game itself means we don’t have to change our strategy too much. It’s good we won the Super Over and the morale is high in the dressing room.”

Left-arm spinner was released by Lancashire in 2018

Matt Roller11-Aug-2020Simon Kerrigan, the left-arm spinner who played one Test for England in 2013, has signed a two-year contract at Northamptonshire, nearly three years since his last professional appearance.Kerrigan, 31, was released by Lancashire at the end of the 2018 season after going a full year without making a first-team appearance, after which he put his playing career on hold to focus on coaching during a struggle for form.Regrettably, he is best known for struggling badly on his Test debut against Australia at The Oval, in which he conceded 53 runs from his eight overs in the match. He was not immediately discarded by England, travelling to Sri Lanka with the Lions in the 2013-14 winter and winning a recall to the squad during the India series the following summer.But his County Championship form tailed off somewhat: having taken 57 wickets at 20.89 in 2013, he averaged 35.36, 32.21 and 37.88 in the next three summers, before falling out of the first team in 2017. He joined Northants on loan for four games at the end of that season, but played club cricket for Fulwood and Broughton primarily as a specialist batsman in 2018 after putting his Lancashire career on hold.In 2019, he returned to bowling with a bang, taking 62 wickets at 8.48 apiece in the Northern Premier League to top the wicket-taking charts, and has trained regularly with Northants, travelling to Singapore with them on their pre-season tour. He has now signed a two-year deal with the club, which runs until the end of the 2022 season.”I’m delighted to have signed,” Kerrigan said. “I’ve worked hard over the winter and went on the pre-season tour to Singapore with the club, and felt in a good place pre-Covid to push for a contract. I’m really happy that the club have put their faith in me and offered me a contract for next year.”It’s an exciting time for the club with Sads [John Sadler] and Lids [Chris Liddle] coming in on the coaching staff along with being in Div 1 next year. I hope I can contribute a few five-fors to the cause and be part of some successful campaigns for Northamptonshire.”David Ripley, Northants’ head coach, said: “Since Graeme White retired from that side of the game we’ve been short of red-ball spin… so it’s great to have [Rob] Keogh and Kerrigan as a pair of red-ball spinners for Division One.””Simon and I have kept in touch pretty much since he came on loan in 2017 and he’s bowled regularly with the squad too. I think where he is now is a really exciting place: he’s a bit more content in himself and his bowling is in a great place technically.”I’m really excited: I’m pleased for him because he’s a cracking lad, a bit of a cricket badger and I’m really pleased we’ve given him and opportunity and I’ve just got that feeling it’s going to be a good story.”

Australia captain says 2015 World Cup “quite aggressive on the field, mainly from us” but this time around it’s “great spirit” on display from the teams

Andrew Miller at Lord's28-Jun-2019Aaron Finch, Australia’s captain, believes that his team’s reformed attitude in the field has been a factor in a World Cup that has been notable for the spirit between the teams.In beating England last week on the same strip that will be used for tomorrow’s showdown against New Zealand, Finch’s Australians became the first team to book a place in next month’s semi-finals.And looking back on the 2015 event in Australia, when they beat the same opponents to secure the World Cup for a record fifth time, Finch admitted that the tone of that tournament on that occasion had been significantly more aggressive, “mainly from us”.But, in the wake of the Cape Town ball-tampering scandal – and the bans for three of their players including the then captain and vice-captain Steven Smith and David Warner – Australia have gone out of their way to present a new, more friendly, attitude. So far at this World Cup, a softer approach has not impacted on their hard attitude in the big moments, and Finch is happy to revel in the wider benefits.”I think it has been a great spirit out on the field, regardless of results,” Finch said. “You see a lot of smiles on people’s faces, which is a good sign that the game’s in really good hands at the moment, and that it is being played in the right spirit.”I’m not sure if it’s been a conscious effort from individual countries, but it certainly felt like a really, really good tournament.”Australia and New Zealand have been involved in two of the stand-out moments of sporting behaviour in the tournament so far – firstly when Virat Kohli appealed to India’s fans at The Oval to stop booing Smith and Warner – an intervention that led to a mid-pitch handshake with Smith shortly afterwards – and then at Old Trafford last week, when New Zealand’s players queued up to console Carlos Brathwaite, after his stunning century had come so close to sealing victory for West Indies.”It’s tough to compare different times [but] I know the last one was quite an aggressive World Cup on the field, mainly from us,” Finch said. “We were quite aggressive in our approach and how we went about things.”But it’s been great. This one has been absolutely brilliant, and I think what’s been really pleasing as well, [comes when] you look around the stands, regardless of who is playing.”In the past, if the home team is not playing, there could be some really empty stands, but this has been unbelievable. They have been packed-out venues and really quality cricket, so people are definitely getting their value for money, too.”Kane Williamson, New Zealand’s captain, echoed the sentiments about the crowd, and looked forward to sampling a different vibe at Lord’s from the one that he has been used to on his previous visits.”The atmospheres have varied a lot,” he said. “Pakistan was very loud. Bangladesh, very loud. India, we didn’t even play and they were very loud [chuckles].”Usually you come to Lord’s, there’s sort of a quiet murmur when you play England, but I guess playing Australia it might be a little bit different when you have Kiwis and Australians filling out the seats. It will be a really good atmosphere, whatever it is, but I know for a fact that both teams are just looking forward to getting into the cricket.”Australia, for once, might not have anticipated going into tomorrow’s contest as favourites, having struggled throughout 2018, including a 5-0 series defeat against England. But order has been restored with their comprehensive displays in the crunch moments of this event, and Finch said his side was ready once again to embrace the role of tournament front-runners.”Oh, I think that any time you have pressure on you, it’s because the expectations high, because of what you have done in the recent history,” he said.”So you can never shy away from that, and you can look at it either way. You can look at it as a burden, and only you can stuff it up, but I think at the end of the day, when you’re talking about [being favourites] and things like that, you also have to appreciate the amount of work that goes in behind the scenes from the coaches and everyone to get to that position.”Whether it’s us, England, India, New Zealand, Pakistan, Bangladesh, I think the expectation for everyone is all the same; that you turn up and that you can win the World Cup. So if it did happen, it would be a huge achievement for the country.”Despite their damaging defeat against Australia, England remain in the running to win their first World Cup, in spite of Jonny Bairstow’s belief that his team’s critics are “waiting for them to fail”. And while Finch said that he hadn’t seen anything quite that explicit in the media, his own team’s recent brushes with the opinion columns had persuaded them to ban newspapers in the team environment.”I haven’t seen anything written [about England],” he said. “I’ve watched a TV, a bit of Sky News and things like that that, but in terms of papers, we don’t have them around our team room.”We have made a conscious effort of that over the tournament, and that was basically on the back of coming over here. We knew that there would be some stuff written and there would be some opinions had when we first landed in the country.”So we just wanted to take as much white noise as we could away from our focus. It is quite hard to comment on it because I honestly haven’t seen much of it.”But it’s about getting away from the game and make sure you’re refreshing as much as you can,” he added, joking that he had been spending a lot of time on the golf course until his wife arrived in the country, and now shopping is his primary pastime.”Overall, it’s about making sure that if there’s half a day, that you take that for yourself and do everything that you can to clear your mind.”For me, that’s cafes and golf. For Usman [Khawaja], that’s shopping. A few of us play golf. Steve Smith is still walking around his room with a cricket bat in his hand. It’s just totally different for everyone, but just mentally refreshing every chance you get is so important.”

Super Kings and Royal Challengers missed their talisman players in their last game and their returns could make their rematch in Bengaluru all the more spicy

The Preview by Sruthi Ravindranath20-Apr-20198:24

Dasgupta: It’s too late for RCB, they should look at next season

Big picture

Had Chennai Super Kings and Royal Challengers met before their respective previous matches this season, this contest would have had just one familiar favourite. Take these stats into consideration: The last time Royal Challengers won against Super Kings was in 2014, and right now, they are a full 10 points behind the table toppers. CSK fans have enough to put any debate to rest against the supporters of the team in red.Yet they were left bruised by Sunrisers Hyderabad on Tuesday and Royal Challengers overcame an Andre Russell-special on Friday. All that sets this clash up beautifully.

Form guide

Royal Challengers: Beat Knight Riders by 10 runs, lost to Mumbai by five wickets, beat Kings XI by eight wickets
Super Kings: Lost to Sunrisers Hyderabad by six wickets, beat Knight Riders by five wickets, beat Royals by four wickets

Super Kings’ batting has been largely dependent on MS Dhoni this year, and his absence from the side on Tuesday showed that. He’s bailed them out of danger in at least three instances this season and is also the side’s highest run-getter so far. And without him, the middle order (No. 4 to 7) could add only 37 runs to the total against Sunrisers.Royal Challengers were also missing a key player in their last game – AB de Villiers – but their captain ensured his absence was never really felt. Kohli’s century made sure RCB posted a par-plus total at Eden Gardens while Super Kings – without their talisman – fell below this year’s average first-innings score at the Rajiv Gandhi stadium. Should the weather at home co-operate, RCB might just have a good chance to break their losing streak against CSK.MS Dhoni flexes his muscles•BCCI

Team news

Super Kings’ coach Stephen Fleming said on the eve of the match that Dhoni (back spasm) and Bravo’s (hamstring) availability will depend on “how they scrub up” at the end of the training on Saturday. The CSK captain was, however, seen practising his big hits for nearly an hour.De Villiers is understood to still be recovering from taking a bouncer to the head from Jasprit Bumrah and his availability will be subject to a return to full fitness.

Previous meeting

The highly-anticipated season opener where these two teams met ended up being one-sided with Super Kings routing the Royal Challengers for 70 on a slow surface at the MA Chidambaram. The hosts had chased it down with 14 balls to spare.

Likely XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Parthiv Patel (wk), 2 Virat Kohli (capt), 3 AB de Villiers/Heinrich Klaasen, 4 Moeen Ali, 5 Marcus Stoinis, 6 Akshdeep Nath/Shivam Dube, 7 Pawan Negi, 8 Yuzvendra Chahal, 9 Dale Steyn, 10 Navdeep Saini, 11 Mohammed SirajChennai Super Kings: 1 Shane Watson, 2 Faf du Plessis, 3 Suresh Raina, 4 Ambati Rayudu, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Kedar Jadhav, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Scott Kuggeleijn/Mitchell Santner, 9 Deepak Chahar, 10 Shardul Thakur, 11 Imran TahirVirat Kohli paced his fifth IPL century to perfection•BCCI

Strategy Punt

• De Villiers scored a cracking 30-ball 68 last year against Super Kings in Bengaluru. He had also scored a crucial 14-ball 28 in Royal Challengers’ last win against Super Kings, in 2014. There’s no doubt he’ll slot right back in if he’s fit. So, how can Super Kings stop him? Since IPL 2015, he’s lost his wicket 12 times in 31 games to legspinners. He’s also been having trouble picking the wrong’un, as he was exposed by Rajasthan Royals’ Shreyas Gopal earlier this month. Super Kings could use Tahir, who’s been their highest wicket-taker this season, against him. De Villiers has lost his wicket twice in three IPL games to his South African team-mate, and averages just 19.5 against him.
• Dhoni boasts an average of 75.8 in IPLs at the M Chinnaswamy. His unbeaten 34-ball 70 had helped Super Kings chase 205 here last year. Royal Challengers could use Dale Steyn to weaken the Dhoni threat, considering the fast bowler has dismissed him twice in seven IPL innings.

Stats that matter

• Super Kings need one more win to claim the joint-highest consecutive wins against a team. They have seven against Royal Challengers.
• Kohli has the most runs (738) by any player against Super Kings, but he has not made a 30-plus score against them since their return last year and has averaged just 10.66.
• In the last three games, Deepak Chahar has leaked 78 runs during Powerplay, bowling a total of eight overs. In the first six matches, he had conceded at an economy rate of just 5.6 in this phase.

Australian helps bowl Middlesex out for 200 as Lancashire secure seven-wicket victory

Paul Edwards at Lord's14-Apr-2019
It would, of course, have been the height of metropolitan arrogance on Thursday morning to have dubbed this game a top-of-the-table contest; it would also have been plain wrong.Four days ago only six of the ten counties in Division Two had played a minute of competitive cricket. But it would have been perfectly fair to see it as a match between sides whose seasons will be viewed as failures if they do not win promotion. That consideration gave the contest heft and it helped one understand the satisfaction of Lancashire’s players as they sat on the Lord’s balcony on Sunday afternoon after completing their comfortable seven-wicket victory.Lancastrian happiness was both general and particular. It extended most noticeably to Haseeb Hameed and Rob Jones, whose centuries did much to make the win possible and who were batting when it was completed. Yet the greatest elation this chilly, golden evening was probably felt by Glenn Maxwell, whose career-best 5 for 40 had helped bowl Middlesex out for 200 on a wearing but by no means impossible pitch. And while Maxwell’s figures made him the first Australian since Ted McDonald in 1924 to take five wickets on his Lancashire debut, they also had a vastly more immediate significance. This is both a World Cup year and an Ashes summer.Now Maxwell insists he is not playing county cricket merely to acclimatize for the World Cup or give himself a chance of appearing in the Ashes. His 50-over cricket is in good order already and he may well not play any more first-class matches until September. No, Maxwell is here partly because he enjoys the county game, and should his commitments with Australia end in July, he wants to play for Lancashire in the Blast and then maybe fit in some more red-ball cricket. To judge by the subtlety of his off-spin and the skill with which he used the Lord’s slope against Middlesex’s left-handers, supporters at Old Trafford should hope he gets his wish.Glenn Maxwell of Lancashire claimed a career-best 5-40 against Middlesex at Lord’s•Getty Images

Indeed, so dominant was Maxwell after lunch – he took his five wickets in twelve overs from the Nursery End – that it was important to recall the patience Lancashire’s attack had shown before enjoying any success at all on the final morning. For more than 22 overs Sam Robson and nightwatchman James Harris batted without risk against seamers who rarely looked threatening.The first hour of play was as eventful as a hermit’s housewarming. Robson reached his fifty, there was an lbw appeal and Jimmy Anderson made one lift from just short of a length to Harris. Foreign tourists taking the Lord’s tour – just £25 to you, sir – might have thought they were observing some convoluted religious ceremony. In a way, they were.Then just before 12.30 Josh Bohannon was brought on at the Pavilion End and appeared to make an immediate breakthrough when Harris was caught down the leg side. Billy Taylor’s call of no ball stifled that triumph but four overs later the same batsman’s back-foot slash edged another catch to Brooke Guest and Lancashire had their first success. Three balls later they had another when Anderson, having bowled a couple of inswingers to Robson, moved one away late and the opener nicked another catch to the ‘keeper.”Bang, bang,” fielders shout encouragingly to each other when batsmen seem in the ascendancy. These are not quite empty words. The cricket before lunch had shown how quickly a match can change and we were given another example five overs after the resumption. Bowling from the Nursery End, as he did throughout his 16.5 over spell, Maxwell inveigled Max Holden into a wild drive, which only edged a catch to Keaton Jennings at slip and then immediately persuaded Eoin Morgan to come half-forward to one which did not turn and trapped him leg before. (The Twirlers’ Co-operative Alliance will label it an arm-ball)Middlesex were now six down and safety was slipping away from them. Dawid Malan and John Simpson defended for over an hour and took their side into the lead but without ever suggesting permanence. So it proved. Straight after reaching his fifty with a cut to backward point Malan came forward and the ball kissed his bat on the way to Guest. Three overs later Toby Roland-Jones lost his off stump to Anderson and the coup de grâce was left to Maxwell, who bowled Simpson and had Tim Murtagh lbw in the space of three balls.Lancashire’s batsmen took 15 overs to knock off the required 39 runs and their innings was out of keeping with the ruthlessness they had displayed over the previous four days. Jennings was caught at long leg when hooking Murtagh before Guest and Maxwell rather surrendered their wickets to Robson, allowing this most occasional of spinners to double his first-class tally. No matter, perhaps. Hameed was 13 not out at the close and has now scored only 35 fewer championship runs by mid-April this year than he managed in the whole of last season. The next few months must suddenly seem so inviting to him. But he is not by himself in that.

ESPNcricinfo staff20-Aug-2018Rajneesh Gurbani’s 7 for 81 ensured three points for India Red in a drawn opening match against India Green in the Duleep Trophy 2018-19. Green ended up 28 runs short of Red’s first-innings total, ending with one point as the match petered out into a draw on Monday, the fourth and final day.Abhinav Mukund had won the toss for Red and chose to bat at the NPR College Ground in Dindigul, and the team was bowled out for 337. Gurbani, who made 22 from No.8, was part of a lower-order resistance led by Mihir Hirwani’s career-best 61 that pushed Red past 300.All batsmen in the top six had got starts, but only Ashutosh Singh made a substantial score, holding much of the innings together with a patient 80.The extra runs proved crucial, as Green were bowled out for 309 despite B Indrajith’s 109 and Sudip Chatterjee’s 82. Green looked on course to take the first-innings lead when Indrajith and Chatterjee were putting together a 123-run stand for the third wicket. But Chatterjee was run out by Hirwani with the score at 158, and Green’s innings faltered after that.They would have still entertained hopes of grabbing the lead at 301 for 6, but Gurbani took out K Vignesh, Jalaj Saxena and Ashok Dinda in seven balls as Green slid to 302 for 9. Shahbaz Nadeem had Ankit Rajput caught shortly after as Green fell short of Red’s first-innings tally.With only academic interest left in the match, Sanjay Ramaswamy hit an unbeaten 123, while B Aparajith matched his twin brother’s feat with an unconquered 101 as Red piled up 262 for 1 before declaring, at which point both teams shook hands to end the four-day contest.All the matches in the Duleep Trophy will be held at the same venue, and are day-night affairs played with the pink ball. The next game will pit Red against India Blue from August 23.

Allrounder hopes England’s performance has ‘shut a few mouths’ as he stars on eve of Bristol court case.

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Aug-2018An emotionally spent Ben Stokes admitted that “playing for England means so much” after his final-day heroics with the ball secured his team a thrilling 31-run victory over India at Edgbaston.Stokes’ participation in the second Test at Lord’s – and beyond – will depend on how his trial for affray develops, when the case gets underway at Bristol Crown Court on Monday.However, he managed to put his off-field worries to one side with a brilliant three-wicket intervention on Saturday – including the priceless scalp of Virat Kohli, lbw to an inswinger for 51.”It’s great to be a part of this game, but I don’t know … I don’t know what to be feeling right now,” Stokes told at the end of the match.”Throughout the whole innings … Kohli played a brilliant knock in the first innings, but with the ball swinging, he was trying to move across to play for that inswinger, but actually it was the one that I was trying to swing away [that set the wicket up], he maybe leant over and missed one for a change.”Moments like that change the game in these tight ones. I’m proud to be part of this group, playing for England means so much, and it’s a great start to this tough five-match series. Being 1-0 up we’re in the box seat at the moment.”Stokes followed that dismissal up by having Mohammed Shami caught behind for a duck in the same over, before wrapping up the contest when Hardik Pandya fenced another lifter to Alastair Cook at first slip.”We weren’t quite sure what to expect here,” Stokes said. “We knew we needed five wickets and we had all the confidence, These games are brilliant. We’ve copped a lot of stick as a team recently and beating a team like India there has closed a few mouths.”Winning those tight games, you can’t underestimate what it gives teams for confidence. We’ve got a five-Test match series here, so we’ll take all the confidence we can. There’s no better way to start it off than that.”Stokes’ all-round impact in a tight Edgbaston Test brought to mind the efforts of Ian Botham in 1981 and Andrew Flintoff in 2005, but he paid particular tribute to another allrounder whose four-wicket haul in the first innings and vital half-century in the second kept England afloat in the game.”I thought we are a bit behind with the lead but Sam Curran took them out of play,” he said. “The way that he played at such a young age, that was the big turning point of this Test match.”

The Pakistan fast bowlers completed the demolition job they had begun on the first night, dismissing Cricket Australia XI for 114, but their batsmen stumbled once again

ESPNcricinfo staff09-Dec-2016
ScorecardRahat Ali finished with three wickets•Cricket Australia/Getty Images

The Pakistan fast bowlers completed the demolition job they had begun on the first night, dismissing Cricket Australia XI for 114, but their batsmen stumbled once again against the pink ball under lights in Cairns. The visitors ended the day on 5 for 124 in their second innings, ahead by 218 runs.CA XI had begun the second day on 4 for 3, and had little respite from a three-pronged pace attack. Mohammad Amir did not add to the three wickets he took on the first day, but Rahat Ali picked up two more to finish with three as well, as did Wahab Riaz who razed the lower order. Left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz bowled only five overs and did not take a wicket. CA XI were shot out in 39.1 overs, having conceded a first-innings lead of 94.In their last competitive innings before the day-night Test against Australia in Brisbane from December 15, Pakistan lost Sami Aslam and Babar Azam cheaply once again. They were out for 12 and 22, falling to fast bowler Mark Steketee. Opener Azhar Ali held one end up with an unbeaten 44 off 153 balls, but Younis Khan, Misbah-ul-Haq and Asad Shafiq made fleeting visits to the crease.Azhar added 45 for the fifth wicket with Shafiq, who was dismissed late in the day.Wahab said at the end of the day that he deemed this pitch was on the slower side. “It’s summer here, which is why I feel the wicket is on the slower side. I had to see how the pitch was behaving [at the start of my spell]. It wasn’t doing much and was on the slower side. There wasn’t much bounce and carry, but I managed to do what I do and bowl fast. But the ball travels well under lights. There’s swing and seam and carry through to the keeper.”He played down questions about Pakistan’s scoring rate by saying that it was a welcome sign that the batsmen were spending time in the middle.”It’s good that the batsmen are taking their time. This is what we’ve lacked in the last two-three Tests. Our batsmen have not been staying in for a long time. They’re getting starts but no one has been converting them to big scores. So I think it’s good that they’re taking time and have confidence before going into the Test series. Run rate doesn’t matter as much as the confidence they’re getting.”

Jamie Overton’s four wickets against Middlesex brought hope to Somerset supporters that their talented yet unfulfilled side will be replenished

David Hopps at Taunton15-May-2013
ScorecardNeil Dexter closed the day with an unbeaten half-century•Getty Images

Somerset supporters concerned that their talented yet unfulfilled team is growing old together can take heart from days like this: the young ‘uns are coming. Foremost among the new breed is Jamie Overton whose career-best 4 for 65 challenged Middlesex’s visions of supremacy at the Tractor Ground.It is not really the Tractor Ground, of course, but “County Ground” is always so unimaginative (its only saving grace is that it is not named after an airline) and it sounded like the Tractor Ground shortly after lunch when Tractor himself – arguably Somerset’s most famous fan and ill-advisedly unprotected against the unseasonable chill – was on full revs, bellowing for all he was worth for Alfonso Thomas to slow Middlesex’s progress.Thomas failed, largely because Joe Denly, whose first 10 scoring shots were boundaries, reached 40 by a mixture of good fortune, easy pickings and a decent shot or two. But what the Great Alfonso could not deliver, the Young Pretender did, finding the outside edge to take three of the first four Middlesex wickets to fall. Toby Roland-Jones made up the foursome with two for grabs on the morrow.The Middlesex wickets that matter are those of the openers, Sam Robson and Chris Rogers. Neither particularly catch the eye, but they have an adhesive quality which is at the heart of Middlesex’s championship challenge and which makes up for a flaky middle order. Overton removed then both, at which point five more wickets tumbled for 66 in 18 overs before Neil Dexter summoned a necessary response with an unbeaten 73. Rogers’s Australian late coming this summer might not set the Ashes alive but England will value his wicket as much as most. Like many squat batsmen he can look frustratingly immovable.Overton, still only 19, and still routinely confused by all but the most committed Somerset observer with his equally promising twin brother, Craig, bowled at a fair lick in his 21 overs. The first thing that strikes you about him is his robust appearance for one so young; he may need it at Taunton which is not exactly a fast bowler’s dream. Somerset’s skipper Marcus Trescothick put Middlesex in on a green pitch, but Rogers and Robson dealt with what limited threat there was.
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Somerset recovered in the afternoon session with three wickets in as many overs. Rogers, who had not been as solid as his young fellow Australian, Robson, nicked Overton to wicketkeeper Jos Buttler. The next over saw the left-arm spinner Jack Leach bowl Denly shouldering arms and then Overton struck again when Dawid Malan was snapped up by Trescothick in the slips off Overton.Leach, like Overton a promise of good things to come, bowled with good control and finished the day with three wickets as James Hildreth snapped up John Simpson at short-leg off Leach and Gareth Berg swept a catch to Peter Trego at mid wicket.”Nailed on draw and you don’t get many points for a draw,” muttered one Somerset sage soon after lunch as Middlesex prospered. He will doubtless return with a more optimistic slant on things for the second day. At Taunton, 293 for 8 at the end of the first day suggests that stalemate should be avoided and it is Somerset who have the edge.