New Zealand strangle Australia in series decider

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsHolly Huddleston removed Elyse Villani for a duck•Getty Images

New Zealand routed Australia for their lowest Twenty20 score to complete a comeback series victory in the decisive match at Adelaide Oval.After being comfortably beaten in the opening match at the MCG, the visitors roared back in the second and third fixtures to complete a memorable boil-over against Australia, rounded off by the second biggest-ever margin of defeat for the three-time World champions in the shortest format.Chasing 114 to clinch the match and the series, the hosts tumbled to 66 all out in 16 overs, with only the vice-captain, Alex Blackwell, offering any sort of resistance with an unbeaten 34-ball 30. A pair of run-outs topped and tailed a disastrous innings, as Lea Tahuhu, Holly Huddleston, and Amelia Kerr shared six wickets between them.Huddleston picked up the critical wicket of captain Meg Lanning in the fourth over of the Australian pursuit, coaxing an edge behind that was well held by Rachel Priest. Australia caved in dramatically thereon – reeling at 5 for 9 in the fifth over – a hole from which there was to be no escaping.By contrast, New Zealand’s innings had been underpinned by firm starts from Priest, Amy Satterthwaite and captain Suzie Bates. The tourists lost much of their early momentum in the face of a fine spell of leg breaks from Amanda-Jade Wellington, who finished with figures of 4 for 16 from her four overs.Bates’ all-round performance earned her both the Player-of-the-Match and the Player-of-the-Series honours.Australia and New Zealand now move into 50-over mode for the Trans-Tasman Rose Bowl series. Ellyse Perry is expected to make her return in this series following a hamstring strain, ahead of the ODI World Cup in England later in the year.

Fulton's record ton takes Canterbury to title

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File photo – Peter Fulton and Andrew Ellis played key roles in Canterbury’s triumph•Getty Images

Peter Fulton surged to the fastest century in New Zealand List A cricket as Canterbury ended an 11-year wait for one-day silverware with a 28-run victory in the Ford Trophy final at Rangiora.After steady drizzle throughout the morning, the match was reduced to a minimum 20 overs per side. If a game had not been possible – and when rain returned midway through the chase, it appeared a chance – Wellington would have won the trophy by virtue of finishing top in the group stages.Initially they were well in the chase as Hamish Marshall sped to a 20-ball half-century, but legspinner Todd Astle took two wickets in an over and despite continued strong hitting down the order, it was too tough an ask.

Andrew Ellis on claiming the title

“It’s been a long time between drinks and it’s been tough. Hopefully some of these new guys will start imprinting new memories. I didn’t think we’d play at all, so all credit to the groundstaff. The physio asked me yesterday who would get runs and I said it would be Fults. It was meant to be. Wellington put us under pressure, they are a fantastic team, but credit to our young players.”

Instead it could be remembered as Fulton’s day. The former New Zealand batsman turned what was an innings struggling to gather speed – both personally and team-wise – into a surge to 199 for 3.Fulton’s 50-ball century beat the precious domestic List A record of 52 balls held by Brendon McCullum from the 2007-08 one-day final. He initially nudged to 13 off 20 deliveries, then reached fifty off 34 balls before hurtling to his century from just another 16 deliveries. That included taking 24 off five balls of an Anurag Verma over which involved three sixes in a row.Fulton added 117 for the third wicket with Henry Nicholls – the batsman who has recently lost his place in the New Zealand ODI side, who played a sensible supporting role with 31 off 25 balls.Michael Papps found mid-on early in the chase, but Marshall and Tom Blundell, showing all the skills that earned him a New Zealand call-up, scorched through the early overs as Wellington cantered along at more than 12 an over. However, spin has played a key role in Canterbury’s campaign and it did so again.Offspinner Tim Johnston had Blundell caught behind from a cut and after the captain Andrew Ellis had removed Scott Borthwick to an under-edged pull, the leg-spin of Astle snared Marshall and Matt Taylor in four balls.Wellington did not go down without a fight, as Luke Woodcock and Jeetan Patel swung hard, but Ellis showed all his experience and Kyle Jamieson produced an impressive array of slower balls. Eleven years ago, when Canterbury last won a one-day trophy, Ellis was 12th man. In 2017 he finished with four wickets and was able to hold the trophy aloft as captain.

Du Plessis thrilled with SA fielding displays

There’s a secret behind Faf du Plessis’ success in snatching balls one-handed out of the sky to send batsmen on their way and after his second one against Sri Lanka, he was willing to share it.”Someone once told me that if you fear getting hit on the finger or if you fear what happens when you fall, that’s when you are going to get hurt because you go into it 50-50. But if you go into balls-to-the-wall, if I can say that, then you are going to be okay,” du Plessis said in Durban, where he enabled South Africa to pick up their first wicket by running to his left from cover, leaping in the air and pulling off a one-handed catch in effortless fashion.Du Plessis had put in a similarly stunning effort in the slips to dismiss Angelo Matthews in the Test at the Wanderers. The Sri Lanka captain flashed hard at a ball that looked destined to clear the cordon but du Plessis timed his leap perfectly and his right hand did the rest. He rated the Test catch a little higher, because of the force with which the ball was hit.”The Test one will be hard to beat. The ball was traveling very quickly and it was a lot higher than this one was today,” du Plessis said. “Today, my legs were just too tired, I couldn’t jump up off the ground so I had to save it with my hand. It will take a lot to beat that catch I took at Wanderers.”In the ODI, which South Africa won by 121 runs, du Plessis’ time in the field came after he spent two hours and 44 minutes in the middle, crafting a Man-of-the-Match worthy century and sharing in a 117-run stand with David Miller. Du Plessis’ innings included 53 singles, six twos and two threes, which meant a lot of running between the wickets in high humidity.He expected to feel the effects of his exertion in the lead-up to the third ODI on Saturday but does not anticipate having to miss it. “I feel when you get older your body gets more sore after a game after you’ve done it so the next two days will be a write off for me and then we’ll come back for the next game and I will do it again.”‘Two brilliant catches that you very seldom see get taken and then an outstanding run out, real Jonty-style. That killed us’ – Sri Lanka coach Graham Ford on South Africa’s fielding•AFP

Du Plessis is not the only one who can pull off those kinds of moves in this South African team. “We are very lucky. If you look at the guys in the ring – they are all brilliant fielders. There’s not any fielder there that’s a bowler. It’s all quality fielders, who field at point or cover for the different franchises,” he said. “We’ve got the right personnel and with that you can obviously make sure you train hard and then you can change games with them. New Zealand have been a great example of that for many years and we are right up with them now.”The Durban match provided ample proof of that statement. AB de Villiers took a catch running backwards to dismiss Upul Tharanga and a direct hit from JP Duminy at backward point did Asela Gunaratne. Sri Lanka’s coach Graham Ford had to concede that apart from being out-batted and out-bowled, his side were also out-fielded.”I am not too sure there’s any other side in world cricket that can field as brilliantly as they do. If there is, hopefully we don’t have to play against them. Their fielding is electric,” Ford said. “They have got some amazing athletes in that fielding group. South Africa are very lucky that Jonty Rhodes set such a great example years ago. These kids, when they were young, all they wanted to be was be like Jonty. So from a very young age, really worked on their fielding and enjoyed their fielding and it shows. They must have saved plenty of runs and then two brilliant catches that you very seldom see get taken and then an outstanding run out, real Jonty-style. That killed us.”More so, because Sri Lanka put down what could have been a match-defining catch. South Africa were 118 for 4 and du Plessis on 63 when he edged left-arm wristspinner Lakshan Sandakan to slip but Dhananjaya de Silva could not hold on. They also grassed two more chances. Hashim Amla was dropped on 6 by the bowler Suranga Lakmal, although he barely had any time to react and and David Miller, the other centurion, was reprieved on 67, when a very thick edge eluded Dinesh Chandimal standing up to the stumps.Overall, Ford was not too unhappy with what he saw from his players. “It was one of the best ground fielding performances I have seen some Sri Lanka for quite a while. The commitment, the energy, the effort in the field, in fairly tough conditions was amazing,” he said. “We so easily could have had a different day. We had a chance to have them 120 for 5 with two bowling all-rounders to come after that. The game could have been very different if we’d managed to take that chance.”

Ashwin takes 12, India take series with an innings win

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details23:20

Sourav Ganguly and Jonathan Trott discuss India’s emphatic victory over England in the Mumbai Test

With a victory over England by an innings and 36 runs, India have secured their fifth consecutive series and regained the Anthony De Mello trophy. R Ashwin picked up his second five-for of the match, and the 24th of his career, to make sure the formalities were complete by the first half hour on the fifth day. He took his first wicket when the visitors were 180 for 4. They were all out for 195. It was only the third time in Test history that a team had made 400 in the first innings and then lost by an innings.The end was very quick and very messy. Jonny Bairstow was sent packing in the second over and Chris Woakes in the fourth. Their dismissals provided a simple little summary of the difference in skill between the sides in subcontinent conditions.Ashwin flicked a carrom ball on middle and leg with the intention of making Bairstow play across the line and the batsman obliged. Bairstow failed to pick the variation, was squared up when the ball turned the wrong way, and sharply, and was plumb lbw. Woakes, in the next Ashwin over, went for a loose cover drive, but the ball dipped on him and stormed through the gate to hit the stumps. Reading the ball out of the hand is key to playing on turning tracks, as is avoiding strokes that have a high degree of risk, like hitting against the break.Adil Rashid gave an example of the other thing batsmen weren’t supposed to do: throw their wicket away. He lobbed a catch to deep midwicket off Ashwin’s third over. James Anderson came out and was promptly pulled into some polite conversation by the close-in fielders after his criticism of their captain. He popped a catch to midwicket to give Ashwin his sixth wicket and the best match figures by a spinner at Wankhede stadium – 12 for 167.With the win in Mumbai, India were unbeaten for 17 matches in a row – equalling their longest such streak in Test cricket.

Jurgensen to continue as NZ bowling coach until end of 2019

Shane Jurgensen will continue as New Zealand’s bowling coach until the end of 2019, New Zealand Cricket has announced. Jurgensen had worked in an interim capacity since February this year, but has now been awarded a full-time contract.”We got to know Shane and got to know how he worked with the group,” New Zealand head coach Mike Hesson said. “He’s very hard-working. He put in a lot of work behind the scenes with scouting and providing the guys with information. That’s certainly something you can’t underestimate. He’s also technically very good. It’s about providing him some security and us with some consistency.”Jurgensen had overseen New Zealand’s attack during the World T20, where they impressed, but has since also been part of a less successful tour of India. This is his second stint as New Zealand’s bowling coach, having also held the role between 2008 to 2010.Jurgensen’s most high-profile work to date had been as head coach of Bangladesh, from 2012 to 2014. During that time, Bangladesh whitewashed New Zealand in a home ODI series, and drew their first Test against Sri Lanka, in Galle. Hesson suggested Jurgensen’s range of experience was a factor in his appointment, while family circumstances played a role as well.”His knowledge of all conditions and his overall experience has been evident during his time with us,” Hesson said. “Shane was on a trial, I guess, really – to see how he fitted into the group and also to see how he enjoyed it. But his wife’s a Kiwi and he’s keen to move over here. We wanted someone who was based in New Zealand as well.”The New Zealand coaching staff’s immediate focus will be on the long home summer, which begins with a Test against Pakistan on Thursday. Bangladesh and South Africa are also due to visit in the coming months.”New Zealand has a hugely talented group of bowlers who aren’t afraid to put the hard work in,” Jurgensen said. “They want to be the best in the world and it’ll be my mission to help them achieve that goal.”

Buttler praises stand-in openers

England’s stand-in captain Jos Buttler praised the solidity and adventure of two more understudies – the untried opening pair of James Vince and Sam Billings – for preparing the ground for a series victory against Bangladesh.England’s successful chase is the highest ever achieved at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong, bettering Bangladesh’s 227 for 8 against England in the 2011 World Cup.Buttler said that the lesson from their poor chase when they were defeated in the second ODI was that they needed to be less tentative, something they achieved in style as they extended a run that now stands at only one defeat in the last 12 ODIs where they have had to chase a target.Vince and Billings, a new opening pair that had to be cobbled together because Jason Roy couldn’t shake off his injury, added 63 in 11.4 overs and, while it may not have shaken Bangladesh too much, it gave the batsmen in the dressing room a lot of confidence.Vince has not had a great series but had his moments in making 32 he made with five boundaries, even if he could not push on. Billings latched on to anything that gave him room to free his arms as he made 62 off 69 balls, laced with four boundaries and a six.”I think we probably learnt form the other day when we were tentative,” Buttler said. “Guys were made aware of that. We had a good chat before we went out to bat. We wanted to be aggressive. I thought the two guys did that fantastically well.”You need to get off to a good start. There were partnerships that built and in the end we ran with their momentum. We lost a few wickets that kept Bangladesh interested. We did enough. Chases haven’t been high here so to go and do that with a young and inexperienced side is a testament for us.”Buttler said that going into the halfway mark, he knew that they could chase down 278 runs and told his teammates that they should just go for it, regardless of the outcome.”I didn’t it was going to be easy but I was confident. The start was going to be crucial. Even if we did lose, I wanted us to lose in the fashion the way we want to play: be aggressive, take the game to the opposition. The openers set the tone brilliantly,” he said.Buttler said that their Chittagong experience from the 2014 World T20 where the dew was a huge factor in night games, was a piece of knowledge that they used to their advantage.”Looking back to the 2014 T20 World Cup when we played here, there was a lot of dew. We knew the ball would skid a lot. We knew it would be easier to bat second. It was quite tacky at the start which suited our spinners, who bowled really well,” he said.

Martin, spinners thrash SA for 5-2


Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Katey Martin struck her second ODI and consecutive half-century•IDI/Getty Images

New Zealand women produced another solid performance while South Africa women suffered another collapse as the visitors won the last ODI by 126 runs in Paarl to seal the series 5-2. Fifties from Amy Satterthwaite and Katey Martin propelled New Zealand to 273 for 7 which proved too stiff for the hosts, who scored a little over half of their target.New Zealand opted to bat and were led by Martin and Satterthwaite after openers Suzie Bates and Rachel Priest fell for low double-digit scores, leaving them on 86 for 2 in the 21st over. Satterthwaite fell for 53 and Martin then upped the run rate with her second straight fifty, off 49 balls, in the company of Maddy Green. Martin and Green put on 81 for the fourth wicket before Green was run-out for a 47-ball 46, studded with seven fours. Martin and Sam Curtis injected more power in the innings by scoring 55 in the next nine overs, 40 of them by Martin, to take the score past 250. Martin’s 81 off 72 balls featured 10 fours and ensured they reached a competitive score.Opener Lizelle Lee got South Africa off to a strong start, putting on 35 in six overs with Andrie Steyn. But the rest of the line-up was unable to put on any sort of resistance as legspinner Erin Bermingham and offspinner Satterthwaite ran through the middle and lower order. South Africa collapsed to 84 for 7, three of those taken by Bermingham. Satterthwaite took the last two wickets, after brief resistance, to bowl the hosts out for 147. Bermingham finished with 10-2-18-3 while Satterthwaite took 2 for 15 from her 4.5 overs.No South Africa batsman could score more than 22 and the seven-match series had only three half-centuries from them. New Zealand, on the other hand, managed nine fifties – three by Satterthwaite, who also finished the series as the top run-scorer (344) and the joint-highest wicket taker (11) with South Africa medium-pacer Ayabonga Khaka.

Afghanistan ODI series in Bangladesh confirmed

Bangladesh and Afghanistan will play their first-ever bilateral ODI series in September, the Afghanistan Cricket Board and BCB confirmed on Sunday. The two sides will play the three-match series on September 25, 28 and October 1 at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur.Afghanistan’s only other experience playing against a Full Member side in bilateral ODI series is against Zimbabwe, with whom they have played three series so far.In two previous 50-over encounters with Bangladesh, Afghanistan have won one and lost one; they beat Bangladesh in the Asia Cup 2014 but lost in the 2015 World Cup.ACB chairman Nasimullah Danish said that Afghanistan are trying to get more games with Full Members, and Bangladesh is just the start. “We are looking forward [to] entertaining cricket,” he said. “We are in close discussion with ICC Full Members. It’s always good for our team development to test ourselves in different conditions, and there’s no better place than Bangladesh to do that.”

Buttler ready to seize chance for Test return

Jos Buttler has said he is ready to shelve the reticence that undermined his last attempt at cracking Test cricket and believes he will be trusted by the team management to play his natural attacking game if, as widely anticipated, he is handed a recall for next week’s first Test against Pakistan at Lord’s.With a space opening up in England’s middle order following Nick Compton’s decision to take a break from cricket, and with doubts about Jonny Bairstow’s wicketkeeping undermining his revelatory run of form with the bat against Sri Lanka, the path is clear for Buttler to resume his role with the gloves at No.7, especially if Ben Stokes, his fellow hard-hitting batsman, is deemed unready for an immediate recall following the knee operation that ruled him out of the last two Tests.

Buttler keen to open in T20s again

Jos Buttler says he enjoyed the experience of opening the batting for England in the one-off T20 at the Ageas Bowl on Tuesday, and believes it is a role he can excel in in the future.
“It’s an area of my game I want to develop,” he said. “Batting in the powerplays is something I want to be able to do. Any batsman, you want to be able to face as many balls as you can to influence the game as much as you can.
At the end of the day it will come down to what the team needs. I was asked if I fancied it, and thought ‘why not? I’ve got nothing to lose’. I really enjoyed it. At the end of the day it comes down to what the captain and the coach think is best for the team, and I’ll do that.

A return for Buttler at Lord’s would, on the one hand, be something of a leap of faith, seeing as he has not played a red-ball match since England’s Test tour of the UAE more than eight months ago. On that trip, he was dropped ahead of the final Test against Pakistan at Sharjah following a dramatic collapse in form and confidence. Since the start of the previous summer’s Ashes at Cardiff, he had mustered 156 runs in seven Tests at 13.00, with a highest score of 42, at a strike-rate of less than a run every two balls.However, Buttler’s coruscating form in limited-overs cricket continued at the Ageas Bowl on Tuesday night, when his unbeaten 73 from 49 balls eased England to an eight-wicket win in the one-off T20 against Sri Lanka, and his rediscovered confidence is so tangible that selectors appear sorely tempted to unleash him once again in the longest format.Asked whether he felt it mattered that he hadn’t played a first-class match for so long, Buttler responded, tellingly: “In the olden days maybe it would, but in the new set-up maybe not.”And should he be named in this weekend’s squad, then Buttler believes that the recent injection of a have-a-go mentality into England’s Test plans will allow him to play the natural game that has served him and his team-mates so well during his recent white-ball experiences, both for England at the World T20 and against Sri Lanka, and for Mumbai Indians in the IPL.”I don’t think I’d be trying to bat time,” he said of his likely Test gameplan. “Having had time out of the game and watching certain players in our team from the sidelines in South Africa and watching on the TV this summer – the way Jonny plays, the way Joe Root plays, the way Ben Stokes plays – they’re always trying to put the pressure on. That’s the way English cricket has gone. It’s about scoring runs. It doesn’t matter how, it’s how many. You take your bat out there to score runs, so try to score them.”That was something that Buttler conspicuously failed to do towards the end of his previous stint in the Test team, particularly on the slow, low wickets in Abu Dhabi and Dubai when he appeared to fear the consequences of trusting his attacking instincts. But, with Trevor Bayliss, England’s head coach, cultivating a “no fear” attitude to his team’s strokeplay, Buttler believes he’s ready for another go.”If that’s what the coach is telling you to do, it’s a good start,” he said. “It probably comes down to making peace with what you guys [the media] are going to write and what the public are going to think, and accepting that if you get caught at second slip having a big whoosh, so be it. I’d rather do that than leave one and get bowled. The game’s about scoring runs. What I’ve learned, whatever colour the ball is, is that me trying to hit the ball is going to get the best out of myself.”Buttler was memorably encouraged by Bayliss to put his Test ambitions on the backburner earlier this year, and was given the go-ahead to sign a lucrative deal to play a full season of IPL cricket for Mumbai Indians. But the time away from the Test team has merely sharpened his desire to make amends for his shortcomings last time out.”I’ve had some time away to think and put cricket into perspective,” he said. “I’ve had some fantastic experiences over the last six months and learned a lot – just by siting there watching. I think the IPL was a fantastic experience. You come back so much more confident from that, brushing shoulders with those kind of guys. A lot more clarity about the mentality it takes to succeed.”When you get dropped and left out, you have a good think,” he added. “Obviously I’ve experienced some great things in the Test team, and you realise why it’s the best form of the game. But when you get dropped you have that hunger to get back in. I haven’t played red-ball cricket for a long time, but I’ve really enjoyed my cricket and enjoyed doing what I’ve been doing. Whatever happens, it doesn’t change your ambition. Whatever colour the ball is, you want to score runs and influence the game.”In many ways, the confidence in Buttler’s game is as significant as his obvious talent, for he readily admits that, at the age of 25, and with five years of experience at international level under his belt, he is better able now to rationalise the ups and downs of the sport that so clearly got to him late last year.”It’s the most confident I’ve felt,” he said. “You gain another year. As a 21-year-old, when people said you’ll become a better player with experience you don’t really believe it. Maybe now I’ve understood what that means.”Some of the experiences of the last year I’ve gone through, the highs and lows, have really put it in perspective – does it really matter, the cricket stuff? It’s about not getting too caught up with everything, and just enjoying it. I’ve felt in good form. You try to capitalise on that and use your experience to make the most of it. It really boils down to enjoying your cricket and making the most of it.And with that frame of mind, he feels really to conquer any logistical challenge that the international schedule can throw at him.”When you’re averaging 10, you’re not going to be very confident. The word is conviction. I didn’t have the same conviction as I had against the white ball. That’s what I’ll have to do. Show that conviction, that confidence, and take it on.”

Skipper Lees drops himself before abandonment

Yorkshire’s limited overs captain Alex Lees announced his intention to drop himself barely a month into the job before the NatWest Blast tie against Nottinghamshire was abandoned because of rain as the wettest June for years threatens to put a dampener on the competition.Less, the youngest professional to be appointed as a full-time Yorkshire captain since Lord Hawke, called his decision “a no brainer”.He said the decision was inevitable because of the availability of Root and Bairstow coupled with the form of Adam Lyth, who struck two Royal London Cup hundreds in successive days against Northants and Lancashire earlier this week.New Zealand’s captain Kane Williamson was put in charge before steady rain at Headingley denied the North Group’s bottom two sides the chance to lift their ailing NatWest T20 Blast campaigns in a match chock a block with England stars including Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root and Notts’ Alex Hales.”For me, it was a no-brainer,” said Lees. “Obviously Rooty and Jonny come back into the team, so two had to miss out there. Adam comes into the team. You can’t not play somebody who’s just scored back-to-back hundreds off 60 balls.”It’s just a gentle reminder to everyone that nobody’s bigger than this club and going forward, we want to put out the best team that we can.”Meanwhile, Yorkshire plan to pay tribute to Jo Cox MP, who was killed by an attacker in her Batley and Spen constituency on Thursday with a minute’s silence and the players wearing black armbands in their match against Derbyshire on Sunday.

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