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Needing a win to secure a spot in the Nagico Super50 semi-final round, Barbados knocked off previously undefeated Trinidad & Tobago by three wickets on Sunday at Queen’s Park Oval. Barbados sent the hosts in and held them to 226 thanks in large part to captain Jason Holder’s 4 for 35.Only three batsmen reached double digits for T&T, but each made an important contribution. Foremost among them was Darren Bravo who top scored with 82 after coming back into the lineup for the first time in the tournament since returning from the Test tour of Australia. He received quality support from Kjorn Ottley, who made 38, but more significantly Denesh Ramdin, whose 57 was part of an 89-run fifth-wicket stand with Bravo.Though no one reached 50 for Barbados in reply, every member of the top seven contributed a double-figure score. Kraigg Brathwaite was the best of the lot with 48 off 87 balls as he teamed with Shai Hope for a methodical 62-run second-wicket stand to get the chase going in the right direction.Holder and Shane Dowrich added another 54 for the sixth wicket before Rayad Emrit intervened with wickets off back-to-back balls to nab Holder for 26 and Carlos Brathwaite for a golden duck to set up a hat-trick ball with Barbados still 28 short of victory. Dowrich managed to see off the threat though and carried Barbados across the line with an unbeaten 29 off 50. Emrit took 3 for 45 in defeat, though T&T still finished atop Group A. As a result, they will face Windward Islands, who finished second in Group B in one semi-final next week while Barbados will play Guyana in the other knockout contest.Jamaica survived an upset scare from ICC Americas, scratching out a one-wicket win earlier in the day, a result which meant Barbados had to beat T&T in order to avoid a net run rate tiebreaker coming into play to decide the last semi-final spot. ICC Americas won the toss and elected to bat first, posting their best score of the event and third-highest for any team at this year’s tournament in making 253 for 8.Ruvindu Gunasekera blasted 87 at the top order to underpin the innings. Gunasekera added 99 for the third wicket with Nitish Kumar, who made 43. Though Gunasekera fell in the 42nd over just 13 short of a ton, the strong platform he laid allowed the middle order to play aggressively in adding 95 over the final 10 overs. Srimantha Wijeratne led the surge with 45 off 28 balls while Hamza Tariq cracked a rapid 35 off 14. Sheldon Cottrell had a mixed day, getting hit hard by Gunasekera before claiming three wickets at the death, including Wijeratne and Tariq, to end with 3 for 57 in seven overs.Jamaica started the chase in aggressive fashion in pursuit of a bonus point which would have put added pressure on Barbados, but their eagerness backfired in the face of a disciplined ICC Americas attack. Hammad Shahid struck in the first over to remove Jermaine Harrison before Ali Khan trapped Trevon Griffith at 23 for 4. Captain John Campbell made 82 off 74 balls, including fifty-plus stands for the third and fourth wickets with Andre McCarthy and Jermaine Blackwood, but when he fell at 148 for 4 in the 25th over, the chase for the bonus point came undone.Kumar’s part-time offspin caused major problems for Jamaica in claiming not just Campbell but also Jermaine Blackwood and Devon Thomas to put Jamaica in strife at 218 for 7 in the 35th. Four balls later, Kumar was responsible for a frantic run-out of Brandon King – chasing a legbye after an unsuccessful leg before shout by Khan – by charging in with an underhanded strike from midwicket. Khan yorked Damion Jacobs for a duck in the same over to complete a stretch of three wickets in seven balls for no runs to make it 218 for 9 with Jamaica still 36 runs adrift of the target.Though the pursuit for the 40-over bonus point had to be ditched, the last man to the crease Marquino Mindley came to Jamaica’s rescue with an unbeaten 24 off 37 as the ICC Americas unit spent the next 10 overs unable to dislodge Mindley or his partner Aldane Thomas. With scores level, a boundary to start the 46th ended the match, sending the ICC Americas squad home empty-handed.Windward Islands held on by five runs to defeat Leeward Islands in St Kitts, in a match reduced to 49 overs following early morning rain. Sunil Ambris continued his fine tournament with 74 off 84 balls in the Windwards total of 243 for 6. Ambris followed a 75-run stand with Tyrone Theophile for the fourth wicket by adding another 82 with Andre Fletcher and eventually fell to Daron Cruickshank at the start of the 45th. Cruickshank also claimed Fletcher to finish with 2 for 47, while Quinton Boatswain took 2 for 31, for Leewards.In reply, Orlando Peters made 77 at the top of the Leewards chase, but no one came close to following his lead. Nkrumah Bonner made 35 and added 65 for the fourth wicket with Peters but by the 42nd over, both men had left with Leewards needing 56 off the final 7.1 overs with five wickets in hand.It was not an unwieldy equation and by the start of the final over, 13 were still needed to win. After a single and a four off the first two balls, Jeremiah Louis was run out attempting a second run, leaving seven needed off the last three. A dot and a leg by followed to put the No. 11 Boatswain on strike for his only delivery with six needed to win but another dot followed to end the match. Delorn Johnson took 3 for 36 for Windwards.Guyana completed the highest successful chase of the tournament in tracking down a Combined Campuses and Colleges total of 254 for 7 to win by five wickets at Warner Park. Rovman Powell and Anthony Alleyne both made fifties for CCC to set Guyana a stiff target but it ultimately was not enough.Assad Fudadin struck the tournament’s third century and carried his bat in making 103 not out off 136 balls for Guyana. The opener added 90 for the second wicket with Leon Johnson, whose 56 was the other major score in the chase. After Royston Crandon retired hurt on 29 off 27 balls, Steven Jacobs came in to hit 15 not out as he and Fudadin helped Guyana to victory with three balls to spare.

Graeme Smith felt one of the South African batsmen needed to hold the innings together like Mohammad Yousuf did during Pakistan’s chase © AFP

Spin me once, shame on you. Spin me twice, shame on me. South Africa went through the Test series calmly picking apart the myth that they wilt in the face of spin. On turning wickets, they rarely looked in any kind of trouble. But suddenly, twice in succession, an inability to prosper against spin has cost them matches.Spin over five days and spin over 50 overs are different prospects entirely. Against Danish Kaneria and Abdur Rehman in the Tests, the objective was to not get out to them, one they achieved so well they eventually scored runs comfortably against them. Against Shahid Afridi and Rehman in the ODIs, where swift runs are a must, South Africa have stuttered.The pair have seven wickets between them and have gone for under 4.5 an over; in these numbers have the games essentially been lost by South Africa. Pakistan’s plan has been simple: prepare a slow pitch and choke the middle overs.”We have seen the conditions after the first game,” said Graeme Smith. “They believe they can beat us on these wickets and their spinners have bowled well. Afridi and Rehman in the middle overs made it difficult for us and that is something we have to look at now and plan against that.”Spin at both ends began from the 30th over onwards, when South Africa were a not unreasonable 111 for 3. But in the subsequent, vital 16 overs, until pace offered relief at one end, they squeezed out only 71 runs and lost four key wickets doing so. Each time, it seemed, they started, they immediately stopped and no real partnerships were forged.The pitch fooled many. Yesterday the general consensus was that it had runs, and plenty of them, in it. Smith had little hesitation in batting when he won his fourth toss out of five on this tour. But after a confident start, when ball zipped off pitch and bat, matters slowed down.”Ten overs into the innings we realised the wicket was getting slow and stopping,” Smith admitted. “I think both teams struggled to bat on this wicket. Pakistan bowled well up front. Their spinners were very good because they got the ball to turn away. We got ourselves back in game but we lost too many wickets at crucial times. Mohammad Yousuf held their innings together and we needed that.”Indeed he might praise Yousuf’s innings for South Africa made every one of those 197 runs count. Smith’s assertion that another 20-30 runs to the total would’ve been very defendable has substance in light of the way they bowled, particularly Albie Morkel. Had one or two throws hit the stumps and one catch been held, even the target they set might have been defended.

There are too many ‘ifs’ at the moment that we are not controlling. We are making little mistakes that are costing us Graeme Smith

“We bowled very well. I just think we needed one or two bigger partnerships in the middle. If we can set 220-250 it will be very difficult to chase on these wickets. We had run-out opportunities and we dropped Misbah-ul-Haq first ball. There are too many ‘ifs’ at the moment that we are not controlling. We are making little mistakes that are costing us. We need to be little more precise with our chances,” said Smith.All well and good and true, but you also wonder whether sending their star of the Test series, Paul Harris, back before the ODIs was such a clever move after all. He took 12 wickets in the two Tests and as much as his bounce and turn, it was his consistency in hitting the right areas and restricting runs that impressed.Johan Botha has done well in spurts, but Harris would’ve offered a different threat. Was Smith just a little rueful when answering the question? “I think Botha has done a good job. It might have been nice to have two spinners but the selectors have given us a team, we have backed it and we have to give the guys their opportunities.”

Duncan Fletcher refused to take all the blame for England’s loss © Getty Images

Duncan Fletcher was in a defiant mood on the morning after England’s disastrous defeat in the second Test at Adelaide, insisting that England’s batsmen were to blame for the collapse of their Ashes prospects, and not the defensive team selection that had allowed Australia to dictate terms in the closing stages of the game.”We lost that match in that hour, hour-and-a-half, yesterday morning,” Fletcher told reporters at the team hotel in Adelaide, prior to their departure for Perth. “We put ourselves under a little pressure. The first two wickets were unnecessary, and when KP [Kevin Pietersen] got out, a large part of our batting had gone. If we had batted well there and continued in a real positive vein, who knows what could have happened.”Positivity has not been a watchword of England’s team make-up in this series, however, and Fletcher’s position as coach is under greater scrutiny than ever before. Several former captains have pointed the finger at the team’s selection, including his old ally Nasser Hussain. “He will come under the immense pressure in the next week or so,” Hussain told The Evening Standard. “His selections have let him down and let England down in [Ashley] Giles and [Geraint] Jones.”Part of Fletcher’s success as a coach in his seven-year tenure has been his ability to absorb the flak on the occasions when things have gone wrong, but on this occasion, he chose to share the buck with his beleaguered captain, Andrew Flintoff, who – to judge from his dodgy ankle, dreadful dismissal and thousand-yard post-match stare – has got more than enough issues to worry about.”I’m not the sole selector on tour,” Fletcher reiterated on at least four occasions. “I’m not the one who says: ‘right, this is what we’ll go in with’. Out here it’s like it’s been for the last four or five years, which have been pretty successful. The captain and coach finalise the side for each Test match, and do I stand by the selections? Of course we stand by those selections. I’ve got to stand by those selections as part of the selection committee.”Andrew and I have the final say,” he confirmed, adding that the mysterious selection committee didn’t include David Graveney or any of the home selectors, but instead consisted of a panel of senior players – Andrew Strauss, Paul Collingwood and Jones – who are consulted prior to each Test. Given that Jones, who does not currently have a central contract, is one of the most contentious choices on this tour already, it is a further sign that Shane Warne was spot on in his pre-series assessment, when he claimed that Fletcher has his “favourites”.And those favourites certainly do not include Monty Panesar, whose continued omission from the Test team has created waves of indignation from England’s disgruntled fans. “I’m sure there’s a lot of anger,” Fletcher said, “but I could have taken the easy option with the other players on the selection committee. We’ve got to sit down and say what do we think is the best side, with all the knowledge we’ve got around, within that group of people. What is the best side to win the Test match?”

James Anderson has taken 2 for 303 so far in the series © Getty Images

Fletcher also defended James Anderson’s retention in the side, despite his current series figures of 2 for 303. “Andrew Flintoff was talking about how he wanted to go back to the seamers on a skiddy wicket,” Fletcher said. “When we played South Australia, Jimmy was the best bowler there. He was more impressive than the spinner and that’s why we picked him for Brisbane ahead of [Sajid] Mahmood. When you bowled on the main square, not the rough, it didn’t turn. Skiddy bowlers was the way to go. We had to pick him for Brisbane, because he was the most economical at that stage, and he’s bowled well here already.”The folly of entering such a marquee series with just one fully match-fit bowler in Matthew Hoggard was exposed by England’s inability to polish off Australia’s tail on the fourth day, but Fletcher turned that situation around to highlight once again the importance of a No. 8 who can score Test runs. “At 376 for 6 Australia were pretty vulnerable, but Warne’s hundred [partnership] put the pressure back on us,” he said.There will inevitably be calls for his resignation if England cannot turn their fortunes around at Perth, starting next Thursday, but Fletcher insisted he still had the backing of his team. “I’ve never had long-term views,” he said. “I’ll sit and have a look at it and see if I feel comfortable with myself, that’s the most important thing. If you don’t feel comfortable with yourself, you’ve got a problem. If you feel comfortable you can contribute, that’s the most important thing.And despite the massive odds that are stacked against England, Fletcher still believed his team could emulate Don Bradman’s men in 1936-37 and become only the second side in Ashes history to come back from 2-0 down. “Anytime we play against Australia it’s a huge challenge,” he said. “It was a huge challenge last year, and it’s a huge challenge this winter. But we play sport for that. We might as well not pitch up if we didn’t believe we could come back.”

Career-bests from Goolam Bodi (143) and Renato Almeida (5 for 18) provided the catalyst for Easterns who inflicted a humiliating defeat over Gauteng. Facing a target of 219 runs, after Bodi’s near six-hour innings, Gauteng collapsed in dramatic fashion to the pace bowling of Almeida to be scuttled for a mere 85 runs, giving their neighbours an unexpected 133-run victory.Nick van Woerkom’s knock of 53 allowed the home team, Northerns, to declare at 218 for seven, setting North West a tricky target of 279. With wickets falling all around him, and facing a big target, Driaan Steyn showed a lot of composure to go to his maiden hundred that allowed North West to walk away with a creditable draw. Pierre Joubert followed up his first innings six-wicket haul taking 3 for 29 as North West reached 190 for 8 when time ran out.Bowlers had the upper hand in the KwaZulu-Natal Western Province clash with 21 of the 30 wickets falling going to three bowlers. First it was Rory Kleinveldt for Western Province taking 5 for 42 as Natal were bowled out for 164 in their first innings. Robert Frylinck then replied with 6 for 94 as Western Province scored 244 thanks to an unbeaten 115 from Kleinveldt. Natal’s second innings saw Quentin Friend add 7 for 31 to his 3 for 48 for the first innings as the home team only managed 150. Western Province wasted no time in knocking off the 71 for victory without losing a wicket.

Scorecard

Mathew Sinclair: Man of the Match, and of the Series© Getty Images

A lifeless pitch at Sedgars Park in Potchefstroom ensured that the third and final match between New Zealand A and South Africa A drifted away to a tame draw, as South Africa clinched the series by one match to none.After being caught on a lively green-top at Benoni, the New Zealanders were greeted at Potchefstroom by a pitch that showed less life than the local cemetery. As early as the end of the second day, a draw was hardly in doubt, and even the umpires appeared at times to doze off with two seven-ball overs being called in the South African innings.The cricket was even less exciting. Neil McKenzie and Hashim Amla started the fourth and final day at a pedestrian pace, scoring 54 runs in 90 minutes before McKenzie edged to the keeper off Chris Martin for 59. The partnership of 133 had come off 297 balls and had taken 216 minutes, and in carrying the South Africans passed the follow-on total of 352, it effectively killed the game.There was a further 100-run partnership between Amla and Zander de Bruyn, before Mathew Sinclair grabbed his second first-class wicket by trapping de Bruyn lbw for 40 – the eighth such dismissal of the 14 wickets to fall.Amla reached the fifth hundred of his career after a very patient innings, which was punctuated by 17 sweetly-struck fours in five hours at the crease. By the time be gave Lou Vincent a difficult caught-and-bowled chance he had moved to 141, after a stay of just over six hours.Nine bowlers had been used by the time South Africa eventually passed the New Zealand total, at which point the captains and umpires decided to call it a day and declare the match as drawn.Sinclair won the Man-of-the-Match award and also walked away with the Series award as well, having scored 460 runs at an average of 92.00 over the three matches.

The second day of India A’s tour game against Nottinghamshire has been rained off. This left Nottinghamshire on a commanding position of 265 for 3, with Usman Afzaal unbeaten on 114. With just one day left in the game, there was clearly no prospect of a result – the Indians, though, would be hoping for some batting practice.Click here for day 1 Bulletin.

Mumbai medium-pacer Ajit Agarkar was on Sunday named to replace left-arm quick Ashish Nehra who had been ruled out of the team for the South Africa tri-series after the final fitness tests.Agarkar won the nod ahead of Orissa’s Debasish Mohanty after Indian captain Sourav Ganguly reportedly insisted on having the former.Most selectors were initially said to be in favour of Mohanty. The five wise men might have decided to go along with the captain to avoid a controversy after the one involving Nehra.The Delhi quick continued maintaining his fitness even after the BCCI appointed sports medicine expert Dr Anant Joshi certified him as less than completely fit after a fitness test at the MRF Pace Foundation in Chennai. Ganguly agreed with Nehra’s view that a decision should only be taken after the final fitness tests in Mumbai.On Saturday, the Delhi quick was able to do all the drills without any obvious discomfort but despite this he was ruled out as he had not completed his rehabilitation programme.”I gave him an eight-week programme in Sri Lanka on the advice of a leading Australian orthopaedic surgeon. And he is just reaching that final phase of rehabilitation, which is very important. He needs another couple of weeks to finish his training programme. If we stop it here, it could probably reopen his injury and might set him back for another couple of months,” Indian physio Andrew Leipus told the on Saturday.”So I am being tough with him. But I am being fair thinking about his long-term career. We will rest him for the one-day series and get him back for the Tests.”He is going to go through another fitness test in a couple of weeks to see how he is bowling. But I have no doubts that he will be fit for the Tests. He is actually bowling freely at the moment. But there is still a little stiffness which means the injury has not fully healed,” Leipus told the paper.Top guns, Sachin Tendulkar and Anil Kumble, being deemed fit for the tour though meant that the Indian side for the one-day tri-series would still one of the strongest in recent times.Kenya is the third team in the competition.The Indian team that leaves for South Africa on Monday then is as follows:Sourav Ganguly (captain), Rahul Dravid (vice-captain), Sachin Tendulkar, Shiv Sunder Das, Virender Shewag, Yuvraj Singh, Jacob Martin, Reetinder Singh Sodhi, Deep Das Gupta (wkt), Harbhajan Singh, Harvinder Singh, Anil Kumble, Javagal Srinath, Venkatesh Prasad and Ajit Agarkar.

Reliable journalist Mike McGrath has claimed that Leeds United boss Jesse Marsch is in line for two major injury boosts, with news on the ‘horizon’.  

The Lowdown: Bamford and Phillips’ absence

Patrick Bamford and Kalvin Phillips were two of Leeds’ best performers in the club’s first season back in the Premier League, with the former scoring 17 times and the latter making himself an England regular.

However, this season, the pair haven’t been able to impress, with Bamford making just five starts and Phillips missing since December along with captain Liam Cooper.

As a result, Leeds have struggled in 2021/22 and find themselves just two points clear of the relegation zone with 12 games remaining.

The Latest: McGrath’s comments

McGrath shared a Leeds column on The Telegraph on Monday morning and touched on the club’s injury situation.

He stated that Marsch could ‘have players returning from injury on the horizon’, name-checking both Bamford and Phillips.

The Verdict: Big news

Whatever ‘on the horizon’ means specifically, you’d expect that this weekend may come too soon for both Phillips and Bamford, but Phil Hay has recently revealed they aren’t far off.

So, with back-to-back home games against Aston Villa and Norwich City following the trip to Leicester City, it would be big for Marsch to have the pair back in any capacity when those matches roll around.

FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast. Subscribe FootballFanCast General Stay ahead in the world of football analysis, commentary, and fan insights with FootballFancast.

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Those Elland Road fixtures could go a long way in regards to Leeds ensuring their Premier League safety, so having two influential players possibly back is brilliant news.

In other news: ‘The 49ers want…’ – Report drops huge claim as Leeds exodus now set to continue after Bielsa. 

Shoaib Akhtar arrives for his disciplinary hearing © AFP

The disciplinary committee investigating Shoaib Akhtar’s spat with Mohammad Asif at the Twenty20 World Cup in South Africa last month has completed its work, but will only announce a decision next week.”We have heard the versions of all the relevant persons and now we will announce the decision within the next week,” Shafqat Naghmi, chairman of the board’s three-member committee and the board’s chief operating officer, said.Shoaib appeared before the disciplinary committee with his lawyer while Asif, Shahid Afridi and Talat Ali, the team manager, also recorded their statements. “Now there will be no more hearings and we will reach a decision,” Naghmi said.A final decision was expected today, but Naghmi said “supplementary material” provided by Shoaib in the morning would be looked at before the decision was made. He did not expand on the nature of this material.Shoaib was sent back from Johannesburg soon after the incident, in which he struck Asif with a bat. On his arrival, he held a press conference in which he blamed Afridi for instigating and provoking him into the attack.Shoaib is facing three separate disciplinary charges as well, including one where is said to have played a charity match in England without permission from the board. The other charges revolve around comments he made to the media in South Africa about the doping scandal.In August, he was handed a fine of US$5,000 for leaving a training camp in Karachi without informing the team’s management. The fine was suspended, but board officials said he will now have to pay the fine because of this latest lapse.Earlier in the day, a report a report in, a leading daily, suggested that the spat with Asif was not one of the charges Shoaib was facing.But a board official clarified that this wasn’t the case. “We have to send a show-cause notice first to the concerned party detailing the charges. They then present themselves in front of the committee and answer to the charges. With the Asif incident, the team management had already taken some action and heard Shoaib’s version of events in South Africa so that wasn’t part of the show-cause notice. But the incident is definitely within the committee’s ambit.”

Pramodaya Wickramasinghe: Addressing media in Colombo © SLCA

The Sri Lanka Cricketers’ Association (SLCA) on have announced an awards scheme for the country’s leading domestic and international players.”A lot of countries have such awards,” Pramodaya Wickramasinghe, president of the SLCA, told AFP. “This is something that we’ve been thinking of seriously and want to initiate. Domestic cricket has been one of our major concerns. We feel there’s not much recognition for it, though it plays a vital part. We have a sponsor and will have a grand awards ceremony early next year.”The awards will carry a total cash prize of Rs 12 million (US$ 120,000), with the player of the year set to receive Rs 250,000 (US$ 2,500). Apart from players, umpires, coaches and curators are also likely to be honoured at the ceremony.The SLCA, which comprises of former and present cricketers, recently introduced a pension scheme for former players in which everyone over the age of 55 gets Rs 10,000 (100 dollars) per month. The association was also involved in negotiating contracts for players earlier this year.