All posts by csb10.top

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
1:24

Kohli king of the chase as India win series

Normal service resumed in the West Indies as the hosts’ batsmen failed again – this time on a much better batting surface – and India chased 206 down with relative ease to seal the series 3-1. Just like India seem wired to score around 300 no matter the situation or conditions, the number seems to be 200 for them. They got away with 189 in the last match, but on a pitch that the ball came on to the bat, their inability to score freely off the spinners – 76 runs in 24 overs – consigned them to defeat.In the chase, Virat Kohli overcame his recent short-ball trouble by choosing to tide over the barrage as opposed to hooking everything. He now has more hundreds in ODI chases than anybody else – 18.The unsung heroes for India, though, were their spinners even though the scoreboard shows just one under the wickets column for them, that too for part-timer Kedar Jadhav. The fast bowlers, who took eight wickets between them, will, however, argue that they cleaned up after themselves after a profligate start. Umesh Yadav in particular struggled with the new ball, bowling either short and wide or full on the pads. Kyle Hope cashed in as he and Evin Lewis added 39 for the first wicket in 8.2 overs. Then he joined brother Shai to add a further 37.At 3-0-22-0, Umesh was taken out of the attack, and was brought back soon after the fielding restrictions were taken off. He bowled two overs for four runs, then Kyle Hope attacked him with two boundaries and fell while going for a third. The ball was short enough, but the batsman failed to clear short midwicket. Umesh swooped in on that break with a full and straight delivery to send Roston Chase back first ball.The stage was now for spinners to cut off the oxygen supply. Ravindra Jadeja found turn, Kuldeep Yadav remained difficult to negotiate, and Jadhav’s low, round-arm, non-turning, slow offbreaks sent back a frustrated Jason Mohammed.Walking in at 115 for 4 in the 31st over, Jason Holder used his long reach to put the spinners off their rhythm. He hit four fours, and a six off Hardik Pandya, but when he went to hit Shami straight down the ground he found an agile Shikhar Dhawan at long-on. The going was tough for West Indies after that.And before that. There had been an 11-over spell without boundaries before Holder, and after Holder they managed only three boundaries, which incredibly were the first ones they had hit past the 40th over all series. Two of those were sixes in the last two overs from Rovman Powell that pushed West Indies past 200. Still they knew they needed lightning to strike twice if they were to defend this.For a moment it seemed lightning might indeed strike twice when Dhawan went back in the first over of the chase, again driving on the up and failing to keep the ball down. In the fourth over, it should have become two down but Devendra Bishoo dropped Ajinkya Rahane at point. Rahane didn’t go on to take his streak of 50 or more to five, but he added 79 with Kohli to set India on their way.More importantly, Rahane’s urgency and early boundaries meant Kohli could take his time dealing with the short ball. In the previous matches, his eagerness to score, a dominating batsman’s ego if you will, had got the better of him, but here Kohli was prepared to wait it out. He kept ducking, weaving and leaving bouncers before he finally hooked in the ninth over, at least the eighth bouncer bowled at him. This was smoked clean in front of square for four with the wrists managing to keep it down.The bouncers now came down to the occasional ones. Rahane reached his slowdown period now with the ball getting older, but slowly – and a little gingerly – Kohli began to dominate. It helped that there were quite a few loose balls on offer, especially from West Indies’ legspinning talisman Bishoo.As Kohli got more and more comfortable at the wicket, he began to put away even the good balls, as he did with a late cut off an Ashley Nurse length ball to move to 68 off 80. He moved to hundred in another 28 balls, unleashing an emotional celebration. Dinesh Karthik, playing only his second ODI in three years, provided Kohli good support, scoring a fifty of his own.

ScorecardFor many years, Blackbird by The Wurzels has been as close to an official Somerset cricketing song as anything. It was recorded in 1976 and Somerset’s glory years of Botham, Richards and co began two years later, although it took an Australian, Justin Langer, to adopt Blackbird as a dressing room victory anthem.A victory song has not yet been needed by Somerset this season, not in the Championship anyway. They are winless in five matches, 14 points adrift from safety, which is the sort of run where players begin to forget the lyrics and instead mouth in desperation.They are desperate to get their season on track by taking advantage of a weakened Yorkshire attack. But after stealing a first-innings lead of 22, despite the exemplary efforts of Ryan Sidebottom, who returned 5 for 56 and totted up 750 first-class wickets in the process, Somerset struggled to push home their advantage.Peter Handscomb, sustained by a diet of legside flicks, struck an unbeaten 57 and gave Yorkshire the slightest edge at the close of a keenly-contested second day: 105 ahead with eight wickets remaining. The ball is offering for the spinners, but nothing extravagant and the bounce remains reliable even though the pitch was used in the previous Championship match against Hampshire. The game is still wide open.If Somerset don’t win this, there is a miniscule chance that Blackbird will never be sung again because it appears there is a rival in town. Ahead of Somerset’s Royal London Cup quarter-final against Nottinghamshire on Wednesday, a rival ditty has been penned. ‘Go Somerset,’ written by committed Somerset fan Charles Clive Ponsonby-Fane, has more of Chas & Dave about it than the Wurzels, which as that is more Cockney than West Country makes a case for its automatic rejection, but the family does not lack for cricketing influence.Back in the day, Sir Spencer Ponsonby-Fane laid the foundation stone of the pavilion at Lord’s and also became Somerset’s first president. Guy Lavender, Somerset’s chief executive, will soon strengthen those ties by taking up the chief executive’s role at the MCC. If asked, however, he would be too wise a bird to voice a preference.Ponsonby-Fane told the that the tune came to him while driving and was so catchy that he just had to drive straight home to write it down. That is the sort of commitment that sets cricketing families apart from the rest of us. “Sorry dear, I couldn’t get the milk: this cricket song suddenly came to me.”Peter Handscomb led Yorkshire’s batting resistance•Getty Images

Perhaps Tom Abell should have given it a hum in the field, especially the refrain: “We got a wicket, that’s good cricket, just the ticket, we want one more.” They got one wicket when Adam Lyth played back to the offspin of Dom Bess and was adjudged lbw, departing with a meaningful gesture at his bat and kick of an old wicket end. They got another when Craig Overton bowled Alex Lees through the gate, but Handscomb and Ballance restored Yorkshire’s authority by the close.Somerset had conceded three wickets cheaply on the first evening, so resistance from Lewis Gregory and Steve Davies for much of the morning was a necessary response. Gregory looked in good order following his maiden Championship hundred against Middlesex and Davies, bereft of form all season, benefited from a missed chance by Adam Lyth at second slip – another potential scalp for Sidebottom – to exhibit some crisp strokeplay.Somerset’s belief grew that salvation on a used pitch could lie in a superior spin pairing as Azeem Rafiq erred in length too often – although he did pick up Davies at slip – and Karl Carver’s left-arm spin was shunned, so questioning the sense of Yorkshire’s omission of Jack Brooks. Justification might come in the fourth innings. When Carver did bowl, he rounded up Somerset’s innings by removing last man Bess to a keeper’s catch.Adam Hose’s Championship debut is not going well. He strained a thigh on the first day and, on the second, coming in belatedly at No. 7, lasted six balls before planting his front foot and falling lbw, so bringing Matthew Waite a first Championship wicket.Things could turn for Hose. Countless debutants, and some extremely good ones, have begun life with a duck. But at the moment nobody is rushing home to write a song about him. Not even Charles Clive Ponsonby-Fane. At least, if he is, he has yet to tell the .

Isa Guha, the former England seamer, has become the first woman to be appointed to the board of the Professional Cricketers’ Association.Guha, 31, becomes a non-executive director of the players’ union.She retired from international cricket in 2012, having played a part in England’s victories in both the World Cup and the World T20 in 2009, as well as two Ashes triumphs in 2005 and 2007-08, when she took career-best match figures of 9 for 100 at Bowral.She has since gone on to forge a career in broadcasting, becoming the first female summariser on BBC Test Match Special in 2014, before co-hosting ESPN’s coverage of the 2015 World Cup in Australia.”Isa has a vast knowledge of the game from a men’s and women’s perspective,” said David Leatherdale, the PCA chief executive. “With our international women players now full members of the PCA, Isa will bring real insight to the PCA board.””I am delighted to be joining the PCA at an exciting time for the game here in England for our men and women at both domestic and international levels,” Guha said.”I look forward to working with the team at the PCA, and with all the many past and present players, as the country prepares for a number of major events, starting with the ICC Champions Trophy and the Women’s World Cup this summer.”

ScorecardFile photo – Fawad Ahmed took 3 for 14 in his first Sheffield Shield game for nearly a year•Getty Images

Fawad Ahmed enjoyed his return to Sheffield Shield cricket for the first time in nearly a year, collecting 3 for 14 as Victoria skittled Western Australia for 146 in Alice Springs. However, at stumps on the first day, the Bushrangers had also stumbled with the bat and were 5 for 106, still trailing by 40 runs, with Daniel Christian on 5 and Chris Tremain yet to score.Jason Behrendorff and David Moody had picked up two wickets each, but it was D’Arcy Short who picked up the key wicket of Marcus Stoinis for 46 in the last few overs before stumps. Earlier, the Warriors had suffered a top-order collapse to be 4 for 17, with Cameron Bancroft, Jon Wells and Adam Voges all falling for ducks.Ashton Turner (59) and Short (42) ensured the Warriors pushed their score up past 100, but the legspin of Fawad then ripped through the lower order. It was Fawad’s first Shield game since March last year, and he struck with his first delivery when he had Josh Inglis trapped lbw, before adding two more wickets.

AB de Villiers, South Africa’s one-day captain, believes there has never been as much belief in the squad as they currently have in the midst of an 11-match ODI winning streak.A win in Hamilton on Sunday will equal South Africa’s best run in ODI cricket – matching the 12 wins in a row they achieved in 2005 – and eyes are already firmly fixed on the Champions Trophy in June. Global tournaments come with a huge weight of history for South Africa, most of it bad, but de Villiers’ faith in his squad is absolute.”The belief in the squad is as high as I’ve ever experienced it,” he said. “There’s a great respect among the players and a sense of direction. It’s as simple as that. We know it can change in a matter of minutes, so there’s a deep respect for the game and the fact you can go into a dip at any time, but I really believe what we have in this team will carry us through good and bad times.”It’s definitely a build-up towards the Champions Trophy, it’s a big goal of ours to go there and win that tournament, we know there’s a long way to go but this is a great stepping stone,” he added. “The conditions are pretty similar – the ball moves around a bit when it’s new and you have to extend your partnerships when you get in, so it’s quite similar to the UK.”

Pretorius available for SA

Dwaine Pretorius, the allrounder, will be available for the second ODI in Christchurch after delaying his departure for the tour to attend the birth of his child.
Pretorius, 27, made his ODI debut against Ireland last year and recently claimed five wickets in two matches against Sri Lanka.
Dane Paterson was included for the start of the tour as cover in Pretorius’ absence and played the T20 in Auckland when Kagiso Rabada was rested.

South Africa had warned themselves to be on their guard against a slow start to their tour and de Villiers was delighted with the intensity they showed in the T20 at Eden Park. He admitted a one-off match was tough to get motivated for, but that made the convincing nature of the 78-run victory even more pleasing ahead of the main portions of the tour.”It’s difficult to get yourself up for a one-game series. We chatted about that and saw it as a red flag – even though it’s not that significant, you are still representing your country,” he said. “You are away from home and you want to start a tour off on the right note. We are hoping that momentum will take us into the ODI series. I thought we played an outstanding game of cricket. It was vital for us to start well, it doesn’t guarantee us any success in the ODIs but it was a good start.”A couple of hours after completing their victory, at close to midnight, with only the cleaners, security and night owls of the media left at the ground, the full South African squad strode out to the middle of the Eden Park pitch and produced a loud rendition of their team song. De Villiers admitted it felt “a bit weird” after a one-off match but said it was important to maintain traditions.”We were hoping no one would be there,” he said with a hint of a smile. “We normally go out quite late, but it’s just a tradition after every series win. You have to appreciate the good times.”He insisted, though, that there was no extra feeling because of what had happened the last time South Africa played at Eden Park in the World Cup semi-final.”It will never disappear that we lost the semi-final, but all you can focus on is the now. That game has been played about a 1000 times on TV over the last few days, so I’ve been reliving those emotions quite a bit, but it’s all good memories really. We’ve got through all the pain and heartache. When I’ve watched the game over the last few days I just saw good things.”And with that, the next global tournament draws ever nearer.

Australia captain Steven Smith reached a career-high 939 points to extend his lead at the top of the ICC Rankings for Test Batsmen after the first Test between India and Australia. His new tally of 939 rating points puts him at sixth in the all-time list, behind Don Bradman (961), Len Hutton (945), Jack Hobbs and Ricky Ponting (both 942) and Peter May (941). Smith surpassed Garry Sobers, Viv Richards and Kumar Sangakkara, who all had career-high ranking points of 938.Smith, who struck crucial knocks of 27 and 109 in the Pune Test, has a 66-point lead over second-placed Virat Kohli and leads third-placed Joe Root by 91.A strong outing for Josh Hazlewood – who went up to 860 points – moved him to joint-second in the rankings for Test bowlers with Ravindra Jadeja. R Ashwin remained at the top with 878 rating points.Matt Renshaw’s gutsy knocks of 68 and 31 saw him move by 18 places to 34, his career-best ranking, while Steve O’Keefe’s career-best performance of 12 for 70 in the Pune Test saw him climb to a career-high ranking of 29.Mitchell Starc, who struck a crucial first-innings half-century and took two wickets in Pune, moved three spots up to fourth in the rankings for Test allrounders, where Ashwin leads the pack as well.

Bangladesh 248 and 253 for 8 (Sabbir 59*, Taijul 11*) need another 33 runs to beat England 293 and 240 (Stokes 85, Bairstow 47, Shakib 5-85)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsBangladesh’s hopes of securing their greatest Test victory were in the hands of their debutant batsman, Sabbir Rahman, and his final two tail-end partners, after an enthralling fourth day at Chittagong finished with three of the four results possible, and history on the cards for Test cricket’s youngest nation.The situation at stumps, after a sensational final session played out in front of a fervent, expectant and ever-growing crowd, was simple. Bangladesh, chasing 286 for victory, were 33 runs short with two wickets remaining and Sabbir standing tall on 59 not out from 93 balls – a supremely gutsy performance from a man who utilised his experience in ODI and T20 cricket to break down the chase into calm and manageable chunks.Alongside him at the close was the redoubtable figure of Taijul Islam, whom Sabbir trusted with the strike as he accepted every single on offer from a deep-set field, and who subverted all conventional tactics in the final over of the day’s play by swiping Gareth Batty for two ambitious lofted strokes down the ground, to reach the close unbeaten on 11 in a ninth-wicket stand of 15.England, by that stage, had earned the right to be considered favourites once again, having cracked the crucial partnership of the innings – Sabbir’s 87-run stand for the sixth wicket with Mushfiqur Rahim – before dispatching two more of Bangladesh’s debutants, Mehedi Hasan and Kamrul Islam Rabbi, with minimum fuss.But, with a notable lack of faith in his trio of spinners (notwithstanding a hard-earned three-wicket haul for Batty) Alastair Cook telegraphed his team’s anxiety throughout a gripping final session. The new ball, due in two overs’ time and such a key weapon throughout this contest, may well be ignored if Ben Stokes and his fellow seamers can locate the sort of reverse swing that derailed Bangladesh’s first innings when play resumes on the final morning.It was a far cry from England’s ambition at the very top of the innings. After being bowled out for 240 in the first 20 minutes of the day, England had made their intentions plain from the outset by handing the new ball to two spinners, Batty and Moeen, for the first time since the Lord’s Test against South Africa in 2008.Both men bowled some unplayable deliveries, but Bangladesh’s attitude was established in a skilful and aggressive 43 from Imrul Kayes, who found a means to counterattack in style, sweeping with intent to disrupt their lengths and pick off his boundaries behind square, while playing with confidence off the back foot in between whiles.Tapping into their recent success in one-day run-chases, Bangladesh were happy to live dangerously in the opening overs – Tamim in particular twice came close to holing out – but their positive mindset sowed some early seeds of doubt in Cook’s mind, as he shed a few close catchers to patrol his boundaries. Nevertheless, England’s patient approach slowly reaped its rewards, and after removing Tamim and Kayes before lunch – the latter caught on the sweep as he attacked Adil Rashid out of the rough – Batty returned with a spring in his step and an extra zip through his action, to grab two lbws in eight balls and put England firmly in command at 108 for 4.Bangladesh’s middle-order, however, contains two of their toughest nuts in Mushfiqur and Shakib Al Hasan, and for the best part of an hour, the pair pushed back against the tide. Mushfiqur produced yet another unflustered display of patience, skill and experience – he has, after all, been playing Test cricket for longer even than Cook, England’s newly crowned most-capped cricketer – while Shakib seemed eager to atone for his wasteful dismissal in the first innings.Bangladesh’s debutant No. 7 Sabbir Rahman celebrates his half-century•AFP

A pair of fizzing boundaries off Rashid lifted the spirits of the crowd – a slammed drive through mid-off and a vast bottom-handed swipe over long-on for six – but, on 24, he received the best ball of the innings to date, a perfect ripping offbreak from Moeen that he couldn’t help but nick to the keeper.Enter Sabbir, with the chase in the balance at 140 for 5. His performance featured two distinct tempos – firstly, when he arrived at the crease in the 41st over, Sabbir’s one-day instincts were to go for his shots, and with two big sixes and a four in his first 25 runs before tea, he gave a nervous crowd plenty reasons to cheer as their numbers and belief mounted with every stroke.After tea, however, he was sufficiently confident to retreat back into his shell without losing any of his intent. England resumed the final session with 107 runs to defend and, with the ball exactly 50 overs old, Cook’s instinct was to revert to the familiarity of his seamers – Stokes from one end, Chris Woakes from the other – with Rashid’s legspin thrown into the equation after half an hour of attrition in a bid to buy a breakthrough.Stuart Broad, who had bowled a total of four overs in the first two sessions, joined the fray with a tight angled line into the off stump. But with the reverse-swing of the first innings proving hard to replicate, Mushfiqur and Sabbir had no reason to rush their approach. With caution on the front foot and an eye for the occasional flick off the pads, the pair ground down the requirement on a ball-by-ball basis, embracing the need to take the match into the fifth day if required, in spite of the mounting excitement in the stands.On 34, Sabbir had the moment of good fortune that most players need in such tense scenarios, when Jonny Bairstow – whose glovework had been impressive for much of the match – failed to gather a thin leg-side tickle as Broad strayed onto the pads. It was a tough opportunity, but the sort that needed to be taken, and England’s frustrations mounted after the drinks break when Broad’s second over of the restart was taken for two boundaries, Bangladesh’s first for 19 overs. A short ball was gleefully pounded in front of square by Mushfiqur, before Broad fizzed a yorker out of the footholes and away for four byes.Cook had no option but to revert back to his spinners, and the situation looked ominous when Batty’s second delivery was paddle-swept through fine leg for four by Sabbir. But, before the over was out, Batty had made the critical breakthrough, bursting a leaping offbreak through the top of the pitch and into Mushfiqur’s glove, for Ballance to snaffle at leg slip.The breakthrough had come with 59 runs still required, but if Sabbir had any doubts about the task now in his hands alone, he banished them in style, drilling Batty out of the rough through long-off to bring up his maiden half-century from 76 balls.But Sabbir couldn’t bat at both ends at once, and two of his fellow debutants came and went with minimal resistance. Mehedi was pinned on the crease by a nipbacker from Broad for 1, before Rabbi endured a three-ball stay that was as brief as it was eventful – he might have been run out and bowled in the space of two deliveries, before Broad delivered him a pair on debut courtesy of another important grab from Ballance at short leg.With the light fading and 48 runs the requirement, Sabbir declined the temptation to farm the strike and regularly helped himself to a single off the first ball to expose his partner, Taijul. The tactic kept England frustrated to the close, with Broad completing a valiant nine-over spell that went for 12 runs in total, although Taijul was lucky to survive on 3 when a thick edge from Batty fizzed through the cordon at a catchable height. Cook’s refusal to bowl spin from both ends spoke volumes as the umpires called off the chase in the twilight.Win, lose or tie, this has been a contest to savour, on a surface that deserves huge praise for offering a distinctly subcontinental challenge without descending into a puff-of-dust farce. And whatever the outcome, Bangladesh have played their part and more in the most compelling Test match in this country since Australia’s terrific scare at Fatullah in 2006. On Monday, within an hour of the resumption, Sabbir could have made himself a national hero.

Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur has said the team playing an outdated style of ODI cricket has endangered their chances of direct qualification to the 2019 World Cup. The top seven countries and the host are automatically chosen to feature in the showpiece event every four years, but Pakistan are ranked No. 9 and the cut-off date is a year away. Arthur has advised the players and the PCB that to move up the ladder they need to play “high risk, high octane” cricket and added he won’t shy away from dropping big names who do not deliver.”With the brand of cricket they are playing, definitely,” Arthur said when asked if Pakistan were lagging behind in 50-over cricket. “We can’t play that brand of cricket anymore. We have got to be brave. You have got to take the game on.”There are only 14 ODIs scheduled before the September 30, 2017 deadline. If Pakistan do not improve their ranking, they would have to compete in a qualifying tournament in April 2018. Ten teams would go in. Only two teams would go through.”I have to be realistic,” Arthur told ESPNcricinfo in a wide-ranging interview in Manchester. “We haven’t got the time, but we have started the journey now. We will have to start again. I have got a really good feel for personnel and the areas we need to improve on. I have looked at people we can work with, people we can bring in and I am comfortable we will be okay. We have got the way to go and it is a journey.”If we keep picking the same [players] we are going to get the same [results]. And we will be sitting at No. 9 in the world. We have nothing to lose. We just have to invest in some players. I know for a fact that from the first ODI to the fifth [in England] we changed the whole brand and style of cricket.” Although Pakistan lost that series 1-4, they rounded off the tour with a couple of morale-boosting wins, including a nine-wicket rout in the only T20 in Manchester.Arthur admitted his players have a history of being insecure about their places, which in turn impacted their performance on the field. He wanted that to change immediately and drastically. “I want us to play an attacking brand of cricket, a brand that is good to watch, a brand that inspires the players to play and gives you so much more gratification from your supporters. It must be a brand that challenges, it must be a brand that stimulates, but it must be a brand that is encapsulated by fun.”Arthur was introduced to the cricket culture in the country during his stint as coach of the Karachi Kings at the Pakistan Super League in 2015. Three months after the season ended, he was named head coach of the national side. Among the first things he did in that capacity was to tell the players he would not tolerate any reluctance in meeting the proper fitness standards.”We have got a responsibility to the people of Pakistan and I have got the massive responsibility to the PCB to get it right,” Arthur said. “And I certainly won’t be compromising on any of that. And the players know that: I have spoken to them directly. You arrive like that again [unfit], you won’t play.”He pointed to the examples set by Misbah-ul-Haq, 42, and Younis Khan, 38, the oldest members of the Test squad and the “fittest players in Pakistan cricket,” to make the squad understand what it took to excel in the international arena.”There is no coincidence that that’s why they are the best performers over the last year,” Arthur said. “They drive themselves. They take responsibility for their fitness. Shoaib Malik, in the one-day squad, in his mid-30s, fantastic, fitness-wise. He is lean, he is mean. I want the young guys to do that. That is true professionalism. I don’t think that has been driven in the youngsters properly.”In England, Arthur cut a particularly frustrated figure at the press conference while answering a question about Mohammad Irfan, who was flown in as a replacement player and injured himself after bowling only five overs in the Headingley ODI.”Mohammad Irfan comes out here and he is clearly not fit enough to play one-day cricket. If there were individual-player plans and definite markers on where he should have been, we would have known. We didn’t know.”Arthur also made sure to have a one-on-one chat with the 34-year-old fast bowler to make sure there were no misunderstandings. “I had him in my room after the Cardiff ODI. I told him, ‘I can’t select you for the next game [because] I am not sure you can get through ten overs. I can’t select you for the T20 because I am not sure you can get through even four overs. You started cramping in your fourth over the other night, so how can we take the risk and play you?’ But now Mohammad Irfan has gone back to Pakistan with a training programme that is custom-made for him, which gives him the best possible opportunity to come back and play for Pakistan.”There is nothing personal, but enough is enough. We have to set some real standards to make people understand that we are pretty serious about players arriving unfit. Every player who arrived on this ODI and T20 tour has been below standard, which is not a good place to be.”

ScorecardColin Ingram’s power kept Glamorgan’s chase on course•Getty Images

Colin Ingram blasted 64 off 30 balls as Glamorgan continued their impressive start to the NatWest T20 Blast with a six-wicket win over Gloucestershire at Bristol.The experienced South African hammered five sixes and four fours as his side comfortably chased down a target of 169 with seven balls to spare.After rain delayed the start until 7pm, Gloucestershire posted 168 for 8, Ian Cockbain and Kieran Noema-Barnett both scoring 37.Dale Steyn was the pick of the Glamorgan bowlers with 2 for 21 from his four overs, while Graham Wagg claimed 2 for 28.It didn’t look enough on a good pitch with a fast outfield. Ingram was well supported by Anuerin Donald as Glamorgan made it three wins from four group games.Gloucestershire’s innings got off to a poor start as they lost their two best T20 batsmen Michael Klinger and Hamish Marshall in less than three overs.Klinger had made only five when loosely driving a catch to extra cover off Timm van der Gugten and it was 11 for 2 when Marshall, on 3, played an equally poor shot to be be caught at mid-off, Steyn the successful bowler.It was 30 for 3 when Chris Dent lofted Wagg to long-on where van der Gugten took a good catch in the final Powerplay over.Cockbain launched a counter-attack, hitting two sixes off Meschede before the bowler took revenge by having him caught behind. By that time Benny Howell had gone too and at 79 for 5, the hosts were in a hole.Noema-Barnett played a powerful cameo, hitting sixes off Dean Cosker and van der Gugten in making his runs off 22 balls and Jack Taylor steered Gloucestershire towards a respectable total, helped by an enormous scooped six by Gareth Roderick off Steyn.Andrew Tye’s two sixes in the final over gave the home side hope, but proved in vain.Jacques Rudolph and David Lloyd gave the visitors a solid start with a stand of 29 before Tye struck with the last ball of his first over, the fifth of the innings, Lloyd getting a thick edge off a quicker ball to Liam Norwell at third man.Ingram picked up two sixes over deep backward square in the same Norwell over as Glamorgan moved to 45 for one at the end of the powerplay.The next over from Howell saw Rudolph bowled for 16. But Ingram pulled a Noema-Barnett full-toss for his third six and at the halfway stage in their innings Glamorgan were well placed at 86 for 2.Tye, who had bowled his first two overs for ten runs, was ordered out of the Gloucestershire attack after being no-balled twice for high full-tosses in the 15th over.It was a blow the hosts could not afford. Ingram had reached a 24-ball half-century and by the time he fell to Chris Dent, who had replaced Tye, after hitting the left-arm spinner’s first two balls for six, only 29 were needed from 32 balls.Chris Cooke fell for 16, but Donald was still there at the end, having hit four fours and a six in his 39-ball innings.

ScorecardAndre Russell was in uninhibited mood as he returned to Worcester•Getty Images

The back of Andre Russell’s Nottinghamshire shirt announced him as Dre Rus, the Jamaican rapper, but it was in his cricketing, not his musical guise that he made an impact that could transform Nottinghamshire’s season.What hip hop there was against Worcestershire came in the form of a limp because of a mild leg strain, but his destructive hitting remained unaffected as his 41 from 25 balls, in a sixth-wicket stand of 64 with Dan Christian, transformed a tricky Nottinghamshire chase into a four-wicket win with seven balls to spare.At both Sydney Thunder and with the West Indies in World T20 in recent months, Russell has emerged victorious. Nottinghamshire will hope his brief, four-game stay also rubs off, although they will soon have to prosper without him: he has only one more match before heading to the Caribbean Premier League. For the first two, he has just watched it rain, and has spent his time swimming and staying in the warm.Nottinghamshire were desperate for a change of fortune in a season that had brought only one win and two abandonments from their first five games. To overcome an impressive Worcestershire side, and prevent them from returning to the top of North Group in the process, was an indication of better times ahead, second-bottom turned into fourth in the space of a few mighty blows.A grabby pitch after another wet week meant boundary hitting was a challenging task, but Russell has experience of this ground in 2013 and he produced two of the biggest sixes seen at New Road in recent years, one flying close to the hotel at long-on (nearly a collector’s item of a brutal blow clearing a brutalist building) and another when he sprang from an even lower crouch than normal and jack-in-the-boxed Joe Leach over the new pavilion behind square and across the car park towards the adjacent cricket ground.”Strength man, strength,” was how he explained it. When he struck the sixes, they played his songs and, on one occasion, he did a little dance, his sport and his music coming together in satisfying fashion. There was a third six with the battle won, off Moeen Ali, which threatened a burger van. He has come a long way since he first came to Worcestershire’s attention while playing for Barnard Green CC down the road in the Malvern Hills.”I haven’t played any cricket for the past four weeks,” Russell said. “My body is used to ‘keep going, keep going’. Coming here and playing tonight, it was a bit tough but I’m happy to be back on the park.”Christian possesses prodigious strength, too, and he was a redoubtable ally in making an unbeaten 53 from 39 balls. At 95 for 5 from 11.2 overs, requiring 165, Nottinghamshire had just lost two wickets in two balls to the leg-spin of Brett D’Oliveira, both of them bowled, Samit Patel charging and missing a googly by a distance, Greg Smith virtually transfixed.Nottinghamshire’s opening pair, Michael Lumb and Riki Wessels, also carried obvious danger. They have been in potent form in 50-overs cricket – Lumb making back-to-back hundreds in the Royal London Cup as Nottinghamshire passed 400 on each occasion, including a record run glut against Northamptonshire.Joe Clarke’s right-handed catch above his head at extra cover silenced Lumb as he tried to drill Leach overt the off side, was just that. Wessels was down to Moeen, who had him caught at long on for 36.By then, Alex Hales had departed, too. England players rarely appear in county T20 and when they do they are often ill prepared for the task. Hales was an example of that, having had one white-ball net all season in a summer where his emphasis has been to devise a successful batting approach for Test cricket, a task satisfactorily addressed. He mullered Ed Barnard for one boundary, but fell for 4 in 6 balls when he mistimed Barnard to mid on.Trevor Bayliss has received general approval since his appointment as England coach, credited with being a key influence in their more confident approach, but his lack of time watching county cricket has not gone unnoticed. His presence at New Road was therefore welcome, as he looked on in dark glasses, as if in disguise, protected against this infernal June by a heavy coat and England cap.Young fans enjoy T20 at Worcester•Getty Images

Worcestershire prefer chasing, but they settled to well enough to first strike, taking 54 from the powerplay, without loss. Moeen’s presence was a help, as one pull through mid-on against a 90mph Russell short ball testified, and Tom Kohler-Cadmore did not suffer from the comparison.Since he began the T20 season with a fast hundred against Durham, Kohler-Cadmore has carried threat at the top of the order and it was evident again in his 30 from 20 balls before Steven Mullaney’s first ball – the first after the powerplay – struck his off stump as he tried to run a straight ball to third man.On such a surface, Mullaney slow-medium cutters had an immediate effect. When it comes to being effective and unsung in T20 cricket, he ticks both boxes and Moeen perished trying to hit him down the ground. Nobody would have been more relieved about that than Patel, whose first over had just gone for 14 with Moeen giving the impression he could imagine nothing more agreeable.From that point, 75.2 in 8.3 overs, it was a struggle for Worcestershire. Nottinghamshire cranked up the bowling variations in the second half of the innings – Russell deceiving Ross Whiteley’s slog with a slower one – and Worcestershire ground to a halt. It took Clarke’s maiden T20 fifty to rouse them as 43 came off the last four overs.It was a hard-working innings from a talented young batsman learning with every over, his drives stylish, his attempts at invention – notably the scoop shot – not always coming off. On many days, his 69 from 48 balls might have secured victory, only for Russell’s song and dance to win the day.