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Leicestershire’s quarter-final hopes dented as Hose sets up Rapids win

ECB Reporters Network11-Jul-2024Worcestershire Rapids ended a run of seven successive defeats in the Vitality Blast and dealt a blow to Leicestershire’s hopes of reaching the knockout stages with a 16-run victory at New Road.Worcestershire achieved their highest score of the season thanks chiefly to Adam Hose’s 63 off just 39 balls, beating last weekend’s previous best of 181for four versus Lancashire Lightning at Emirates Old Trafford.The Leicestershire spinners, Lewis Goldworthy and Rehan Ahmed, both bowled excellent spells which gave them combined figures of 8-0-45-3 before Hose’s late onslaught.But their powerful batting top order line-up was blown away by Tom Taylor and youngster Harry Darley as they were reduced to 28 for 5.Louis Kimber revived Leicestershire’s hopes with their fastest-ever T20 fifty off 21 balls including five sixes in a two-over spell and he and Ben Cox added 85 in eight overs.But his dismissal for 53 ended their hopes of a remarkable win against the odds despite Ben going onto complete a fine 50 off 35 balls. Matthew Waite cleaned up the innings with a stream of late wickets including Cox in the final over for 55 to give him a career-best Blast return of 5 for 21.The injury-hit Rapids have lost several games by tight margins but this was a convincing performance whereas Leicestershire have now gone four games without a win courtesy of two defeats, a tie and a wash-out.Adam Hose top-scored for the Rapids•Getty Images

Leicestershire received a treble boost with captain Peter Handscomb (shoulder), Rehan (concussion) and leading wicket-taker Scott Currie (Injury niggle) all returning to the side.Hanscomb won the toss and put the Rapids into bat and Jimmy Neesham made the first breakthrough when Brett D’Oliveira sliced his shot into the hands of third man. Kashif Ali got into his stride with four and a massive six over backward square leg off successive balls from Josh Hull.Josh Cobb inside edged Mike for four but was then caught down the leg side by former Worcestershire keeper Cox off the same bowler. The Rapids reached 61 for 2 in the powerplay but then Gareth Roderick made room to hit Rehan through the off side and was bowled.Kashif, having hit Goldsworthy for a straight six, was given out lbw next ball aiming a blow to the legside. His 41 came off 25 balls with two sixes and three fours. Ethan Brookes also perished aiming to hit Goldsworthy to leg and was bowled but Hose looked in good form and kept the scoreboard moving at a decent rate for the Rapids.Ed Pollock fell to a good catch over his shoulder at long off by Kimber off Currie who next ball trapped Waite lbw as Worcestershire lost momentum. But Hose ensured a sizeable total with a series of big hits as he completed a 33-ball half-century before on 63 he was caught by Cox attempting to scoop Neesham.When Leicestershire replied Rishi Patel, the competition’s leading scorer with 400 runs, was bowled for a duck driving at Taylor. There was joy then for Darley with his first Blast wicket as Rehan sliced the ball to Brookes at wide third. Darley then bowled a wide but his second legitimate ball accounted for Handscomb who clipped straight to Pollock atmid wicket to leave the Foxes 9 for 3.There was no let-up for the visitors and Taylor struck again as Sol Budinger went for a big hit and was caught behind and Waite then disposed of Neesham in the same manner. Then came the remarkable hitting from Kimber to revive the Foxes; chances before he holed out to Cobb in the covers off Brookes.Two wickets in two balls from Waite ensured there would be no late heroics from Leicestershire as he got rid of Mike and Goldsworthy. He struck twice more in the final over in sending back Cox and Currie to complete his five-for.

The RCB batter and the LSG mentor got into an altercation at the end of a tight game in Lucknow

ESPNcricinfo staff02-May-2023Following a fractious end to Monday night’s IPL game, with Virat Kohli and Gautam Gambhir having to be separated from each other, the Royal Challengers Bangalore batter addressed the situation in a video published by his team on YouTube.Captured candidly as he was celebrating with the rest of the players, Kohli was seen saying, “That’s a sweet win boys. A sweet win. If you can give it, you got to take it. Otherwise don’t give it.”RCB came from behind to beat Lucknow Super Giants in a low-scoring tussle, which bore striking resemblance to a grudge match. The two teams had already been involved in previous game that also turned out to be an emotional roller-coaster when LSG secured a last-ball, one-wicket victory in Bengaluru.Related

• Kohli-Gambhir altercation takes away sheen from RCB win over LSG

• Bowlers do the job as RCB defend 126 to go fifth

• RCB bring in Jadhav as injury replacement for Willey

• LSG receive injury blows to Rahul and Unadkat

In celebrating that win, Gambhir was seen shushing the Chinnaswamy crowd, a gesture which Kohli reprised at Ekana stadium.Back in the dressing room, and speaking directly to the camera, Kohli added, “It was a really important win for us. The fact that we got more support from the home crowd is an unbelievable feeling. It tells you all about how much we are liked as a team and how people come out and back us. It’s a very sweet win. Feels very good for many reasons but most importantly for the kind of character we showed defending that total [126]. I think everyone had the belief that we could do it and we were on the winning side which is great.”The IPL took note of the altercation and fined both Kohli and Gambhir 100% of their match fees. They were found to be in breach of article 2.21 of the tournament’s code of conduct, which covers all type of conduct that brings the game into disrepute, including unruly public behaviour.While the players were shaking hands after the game, there seemed to be words exchanged between LSG bowler Naveen-ul-Haq and Kohli. Naveen was fined 50% of his match fees.RCB director of operations Mike Hesson admitted that some of the needle stemmed from the two teams’ first meeting at this IPL. “I guess after the last match at the Chinnaswamy, where we lost off the last ball, it always felt like we were really desperate to get this one. So I think you probably saw a little bit of that boil over tonight.”The RCB captain had no problems with the spectacle. “That’s the best version of Virat, isn’t it?” Faf du Plessis said. “To see him pumped up like that. That’s when he’s at his best. It’s really awesome to be a part of it. My job is to keep things calm on the field, which I thought we did really well.”

England’s captain says the team has grown stronger since losing the 2019 Ashes, with a ‘lot more leaders in the side’

Andrew McGlashan19-Jan-2022Heather Knight wants England to go toe-to-toe with Australia’s aggressive mindset during the T20Is which launch the multi-format Ashes in Adelaide and the captain expects the players to show themselves in a better light after the one-sided 2019 series.England have not held the Ashes since victory in Australia in 2013-14 and the previous series ended at 12-4, which brought the end of Mark Robinson’s tenure as head coach, although the last time they were held Down Under in 2017-18, their overall scoreline was tied 8-8 .Related

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• Keightley: 'We'll be thinking about the World Cup throughout this Ashes'

• Jonassen not feeling 'any extra expectation' with Wareham and Molineux absent

Knight again called the build-up “quite average” with the range of Covid-related curveballs that had been thrown England’s way, but now that the teams are in Adelaide, she said the minds have been focused.”We are going to have to be positive and trust our game massively against them,” Knight said. “They are very aggressive, and we want to be the same and go right back at them.”I have made it no secret that the last Ashes [series] was tough, we massively underperformed, and didn’t play anywhere near our potential in 2019. Everything we’ve done has been about addressing that, and when you have a big loss like that, it leaves a bit of soul-searching and what you can do better. We definitely did that, we feel like we’ve built as a group, taken a lot more ownership and have a lot more leaders in the side.”As with many tours in the Covid-19 era, England have a larger-than-usual squad which is supplemented by further players in the A group which will have concurrent matches against Australia A. The depth of the home side is much talked about, but Knight believes England also now have a far wider group of players capable of performing at the international level. There was a glimpse of this when the main side was twice beaten in warm-up matches in Canberra.”There’s a bigger squad to pick from, I’ve certainly noticed that in the last year to 18 months,” Knight said. “The number of players we are talking about has grown all the time, which we feel is a huge strength for us. Having those selection headaches is really nice.”The initial schedule had this series starting with the Test match, but a reshuffling of fixtures to allow the teams more time to quarantine in New Zealand ahead of the ODI World Cup has meant a shift to begin with T20Is. While that has forced some quick tactical and preparation rethinking, Knight is backing her team’s T20 prowess.Since the heartbreak of seeing their T20 World Cup semi-final washed out in Sydney two years ago, England have won 12 of 14 matches and going back since the 2019 Ashes it’s 19 from 26 games.”T20 cricket is one of our strongest formats, so I think that will suit us quite nicely, we are really clear how we want to go about playing T20,” Knight said. “Think the last few series we’ve really looked to go hard in that first game, previously it’s been a weakness of ours. There will obviously be nerves around, that’s completely normal, but we are confident we can cope with that and punch first against Australia.”Knight said that England’s XI for the opening match had been decided but she would not be revealing it until the game.

The BCB chief wants to see the 2019-20 and 2020-21 DPLs held in the same season

Mohammad Isam28-Sep-2020The BCB has given a green signal to restart domestic cricket for the first time in six months in Bangladesh. Board president Nazmul Hassan said on Monday they are considering an introductory tournament before completing the unfinished 2019-20 Dhaka Premier League (DPL) season and holding the rest of the 2020-21 domestic competitions.The update came during the same press briefing in which Hassan announced the postponement of the Sri Lanka tour again. It effectively means that Bangladesh are unlikely to have any international cricket until the scheduled home series against West Indies in January 2021.Usually, the domestic season in Bangladesh starts in October, which makes it likely that if not all, at least the top cricketers in the country will have competitive cricket soon.Hassan said that the national cricketers would continue training for the next two weeks, which would be followed by three practice matches – two two-day games and a three-day match. By then, they would have formulated the initiating tournament, which is likely to be T20s.ALSO READ: Bangladesh begin preparation for Under-19 World Cup title defence“Our Covid situation hasn’t improved to the point that we can start everything normally. But we are going to start [domestic] cricket,” Hassan said. “The national team will resume their training camp for the next 15 days and will play three practice matches.”Soon afterwards, we will start domestic cricket. We have two plans in front of us immediately: we can [either] have a six-team tournament to involve up to 90 players, or, we can make three or four teams from the national team, the HP [High Performance] team and the Under-19 teams, and then have a BCB-sponsored T20 tournament among them.”Once the players get used to competitive cricket, the truncated leagues from last season will resume – but with proper pandemic guidelines in place so that the BCB can ensure the health and safety of players.”We will resume the [incomplete Dhaka Premier] league once I have the proposal about running the leagues by keeping the players safe,” Hassan said. “It is very important for us. The clubs and players must sit together and give us a plan, and then we will give them a guideline.”Hassan said that he would personally like to see the 2019-20 and 2020-21 DPLs held in the same season, although it has never been done before.”We will try to resume the postponed league and then hold next season’s league as well. I personally want to hold both leagues this season, but it is difficult to predict anything [with regards to the Covid-19 situation],” he said.

Raine’s unbeaten 75 lifts hosts from 81 for 7 as Brydon Carse adds 47 not out

David Hopps10-Jun-2019Ben Raine is the sort of cricketer who can make Durham feel Ben Stokes’ perpetual absence with England a little less intensely. To call him a ready-made replacement would be asking too much because there are few players in the world with Stokes’ prodigious ability. But at his best he has the same combative, dog-with-a-bone qualities and against Northants he began to prove as much.Raine once left Durham because Stokes’ brawny frame was blocking his progress. He felt like an excellent signing when he returned to the north-east from Leicestershire during the close season, a player who is combative with bat, ball and in the field. But Durham are bottom of Division Two and he went into the match against the side one place above them with a batting average of 15, suggesting one component of his game was yet to fire: an unbeaten 75 has begun to put that right.Durham were 81 for 6 when Raine came in to bat and a ball later they were 81 for 7. Heavy rain over the weekend had left the pitch responsive to any seam bowler worth his mettle and Northants were in total command. But after 45 overs conditions were beginning to ease, Raine and Brydon Carse buckled down to the task with great deliberation and by the close their eighth-wicket stand had swollen to 128 in 52 overs.Raine’s reward was a career-best in first-class cricket, achieved in the penultimate over of the day when he cut Nathan Buck to the rope. He only has one county hundred – one of the fastest of all time, when he took Birmingham for 113 from 46 balls in the Blast at Edgbaston last season with eight fours and ten sixes. If he was to add a Championship hundred on the second day he would have discovered something very different within himself.Neither Raine nor Carse had not lived up to their potential with the bat in the Championship this season, but their seriousness of intent showed as they laboured 142 deliveries to take their stand past 50. It was as grim-grey gravelly in its nature as the area behind the stand on the non-members’ side of the ground which thankfully is getting a bit of a resurfacing in time for the World Cup.”Sometimes I sound like gravel and sometimes I sound like coffee and cream,” Nina Simone once said. If it was good enough for Simone’s singing, it is good enough for Raine’s batting.Durham pessimists had been dwelling upon their most demoralising batting moments when they subsided to 18 for 4 within 11.2 overs -such as the time last season when they were bowled out twice in two sessions by Leicestershire at Grace Road for 66 and 61. It was Mohammad Abbas, with 10 wickets in the match who played the main hand in that; Raine was not even playing.Ben Sanderson, one of the canniest operators around on a bowler’s pitch, moving it both ways from a tight line, had been the main cause of such pessimism, hitting the stumps three times in a new-ball spell of 3 for 18. Michael Jones was bowled off stump for nought as he left the first ball he received and, remarkably, Durham’s Australian captain Cameron Bancroft offered up a replica for the benefit of late arrivals. At least Bancroft could plead that he was partly undone by lack of bounce. Alex Lees had carried his bat against Derbyshire last week to record his first Durham hundred in similarly exacting conditions, but Sanderson bowled him through the gate.By the time the seventh wicket fell soon after lunch, Matt Coles and Buck had also struck twice. The old roisterer Coles is on a month’s loan from Essex, with Northants’ assistant coach Phil Rowe calling him “a big character and a big personality”.Big is the word. He found enough movement in the pitch to remove Gareth Harte and Ned Eckersley and looked in reasonable order considering his lack of 1st XI cricket, quite an achievement because his natural shape would have been very much in vogue when Northants won back-to-back T20 titles with a side not exactly short of poundage.Arguably the best ball was reserved for Jack Burnham, who did little wrong technically when Buck snaked one back to bowl him. Burnham had a woeful time in league cricket last season during his one-year ban for positive cocaine tests and it is good to see him slowly progressing. Cricket is right to take a tough line on drug abuse, not just because of somewhat dubious performance-enhancing qualities but also sport’s general commitment to health and fitness, but in fairness to Burnham no matter how much he took he didn’t follow it up by condemning such behaviour and standing for the leadership of the Conservative party.

Leach came close to an England call in India before it was found he needed remedial work on his bowling action but continued to be the leading spinner in the County Championship

Andrew McGlashan16-Mar-2018Legspinner Mason Crane has been ruled out of the Test series against New Zealand after being diagnosed with a stress fracture lower back with Somerset’s left-arm spinner Jack Leach called up.Crane, who was unlikely to feature in the series, felt discomfort earlier this week during training in Hamilton. He had initially been named in the squad for the first two-day warm-up match with the pink ball, and as recently as Thursday was bowling on the outfield at Seddon Park, but was sent for two scans which revealed the injury that will rule him out of the start of the domestic season for Hampshire.”The scan results have shown he has a partial stress fracture of the back, we’ve caught it relatively early so unfortunately, he’s going home,” Chris Silverwood, England’s bowling coach, said. “Like anybody would be, he’s a little bit upset he’s going home but that’s life and part and parcel of professional sport.”Leach, 26, was the standout performer on a poor tour for the Lions in West Indies, where they were beaten 3-0 in the four-day matches, with 18 wickets in the three matches convincingly out-bowling Crane. He has finally secured his first England call-up having come close in India in late 2016 only to find he needed remedial work on his bowling action.After working on his action, Leach claimed 51 wickets in Somerset’s 2017 County Championship campaign – the best haul by a spinner in the Championship – to take his tally over the last two seasons to 116 wickets, but was overlooked for the Ashes tour as England went for Crane who made his Test debut in Sydney.Crane claimed 1 for 193 in that match and then struggled on the Lions tour taking just one wicket in the first two four-day matches, in which he sent down just 26.4 overs. Stuart MacGill, the former Australia spinner who has acted as a mentor to Crane, had arrived in New Zealand on Friday to work with England’s spinners for a week.James Anderson, who suffered a serious stress fracture early in his career, offer words of encouragement. “It’s tough, especially when you have a chance on a tour like this but it happens unfortunately,” he said. “Around that age you are susceptible to those stress injuries but the advice the lads will be giving him is that he’s young, has plenty of time on his hands, is a serious talent and if he works hard I’m sure he’ll come back strongly.”Until recently England would have had another legspin option to call on but Adil Rashid announced during the limited-overs leg of this tour that he was shelving first-class cricket to focus on the white-ball, although even if he had been available it is unlikely he would have been selected.Leach will not arrive in New Zealand until early next week and it remains unlikely he will earn a Test debut in this short series unless Moeen Ali is injured.

He became the first Australian to hit a century and take three wickets in an ODI, but despite his brutal 146 not out off 117, New Zealand held on for a six-run victory at Eden Park

The Report by Daniel Brettig29-Jan-2017
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsKane Williamson runs out Josh Hazlewood to win the game•Getty Images

Kane Williamson held his nerve, ran the last man out with a direct hit and stopped Marcus Stoinis seven runs short of pulling off the most miraculous of Australian chases in an Eden Park ODI.Stoinis’ unbeaten 146 turned a comfortable New Zealand victory into an utterly thrilling encounter. And yet he was only on the tour because the first-choice allrounder Mitchell Marsh was resting a shoulder problem. Stoinis joined a motley assortment of other second-choice players standing in for the captain Steven Smith, his deputy David Warner and the wicketkeeper Matthew Wade among others, but the innings he conjured was among the finest played for Australia in recent memory, showing equal parts composure and brutality. Stoinis was the first from his country to wallop a century and pick up three or more wickets in the same match.The visitors had slid as far as 54 for 5 when Stoinis arrived at the crease, and he took his time in the company of James Faulkner before taking the game on with immense courage and power even as Australia’s wickets started to run out. His tally of 11 sixes, most hit straight or in the arc between midwicket and mid-on, was the highest ever in an ODI at Eden Park. As a breakout performance it recalled Andrew Symonds against Pakistan at the 2003 World Cup – Stoinis and Australia will hope so.The arrival of last man Josh Hazlewood pushed Stoinis into a corner from which he could only attack, and he piled up 54 runs in four overs without the No. 11 ever having to take strike. Ultimately it was the search for a single that ended things, as Williamson struck with an underarm from short mid-on to dismiss Hazlewood when only seven runs were required from 19 balls – a fair measure of how destructively Stoinis had played.Memorable runs followed up a fine spell with the ball from Stoinis, who bowled his 10 overs straight through the middle of the innings as the Australians held New Zealand to a manageable 286. While numerous chances went down, 29 extras conceded, and a Hazlewood one-hander on the boundary became six when the paceman’s foot brushed the rope, regular wickets throughout prevented the hosts from creating the sort of momentum required to pass 300.Marcus Stoinis’ 146 not out was the second highest-score ever made by a batsman at No. 7•Getty Images

In his second ODI appearance, Stoinis prospered with his muscular medium-fast bowling, beating Williamson and Martin Guptill for pace in the air and off the wicket on his way to a three-wicket haul. Travis Head was also handy with his part-time offspin, coaxing Ross Taylor to drag on onto the stumps.Guptill had appeared to be the New Zealand’s best hope of a big score before he fell to Stoinis, and it took an innings of impressive composure from Neil Broom to take them beyond 250. Eventually, his 73 off 75 balls proved just about enough.Australia had been forced into a hurried reshuffle on match morning, with Finch taking over leadership from an injured Wade after Smith and Warner both missed the tour. The resultant changes to the Australian top order left them vulnerable to intelligent New Zealand bowling, and the early overs saw a steady procession of wickets that suggested this would not be a close encounter.Finch and Head were out trying to assert themselves early on, via a pull to square leg and an upper cut to third man. Shaun Marsh’s return to Australian colours ahead of the India tour ended with dance down the wicket to Mitchell Santner and a comfortable stumping for Tom Latham. Either side of his dismissal, Peter Handscomb and Glenn Maxwell both edged length deliveries behind, and when the debutant Sam Heazlett also offered up an edge, the score fell to 67 for 6 and New Zealand looked sure winners.What followed reflected tremendous credit on Stoinis, but also on how Twenty20 has influenced the thinking of batsmen around the world. Stoinis and Faulkner were happy to let the required rate blow out to near 10 an over, getting themselves in and working out the vagaries of Eden Park’s drop-in pitch and short boundaries before accelerating.Pat Cummins played his part by striking the ball cleanly to help Stoinis bring the asking rate down, before Santner earned another stumping with his slower pace, flight and spin. Mitchell Starc was unable to contain himself when presented with Santner’s last delivery and was caught on the midwicket boundary, before Stoinis caught fire with a barrage of sixes to take Australia so close to a win they had no right to expect for most of the afternoon.Tom Latham, with two stumpings and three catches, equalled the New Zealand record for most dismissals by a wicketkeeper•Getty Images

Wade had been ruled out due to a back complaint he reported on match eve. His absence meant Handscomb took the gloves, and also that the young Queensland batsman Heazlett made his debut in the middle order. Heazlett was included in the squad without having played a single domestic limited-overs match for his state and was listed to bat at No. 7.There was next to no swing for Starc with the new ball after Finch sent New Zealand in to bat, and it was a short ball from the left-armer that brushed Tom Latham’s glove to offer Handscomb a catch behind the wicket. Guptill and Williamson appeared to be setting a sound platform before the captain squeezed a Stoinis delivery off bat and pad to backward point, and a similarly promising stand between Guptill and Taylor ended when the latter fell to Head.Stoinis then found a way past Guptill and coaxed Colin Munro to pop a catch to mid-on, leaving Broom and James Neesham with the salvage job. Neesham played with particular verve and was looking to accelerate further when he was well held by Head on the midwicket boundary for 48.Santner and Tim Southee did not last long, and Broom eventually miscued a length ball from Faulkner to long-on as the overs ticked down. Trent Boult connected with a couple of meaty blows, which in the final analysis gave Williamson’s men just enough breathing room to contain the Stoinis Hurricane.

Sri Lanka Under-19s have retained their core team from the recent tri-nation series against India and England for the upcoming Under-19 World Cup which starts from January 27 in Bangladesh

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Dec-2015Sri Lanka Under-19s have retained their core team from the recent tri-nation series against India and England for the upcoming Under-19 World Cup which starts from January 27 in Bangladesh.Sri Lanka trimmed five members from the 19-member squad for the tri-nations series, but the only new inclusion in the side is Charana Nanayakkara. The squad will be captained by Charith Asalanka, who led Sri Lanka U-19s to the final of the recent triangular series, and was the leading run-scorer for Sri Lanka with 158 runs in five matches. Allrounder Shammu Ashan has been retained as vice-captain.Sri Lanka are in Group B of the tournament’s league stage, alongside Canada, Afghanistan and Pakistan, and will play their first match on January 28, against Canada.Sri Lanka U-19 squad: Kaveen Bandara, Salindu Ushan, Shammu Ashan (vc), Charith Asalanka (capt), Avishka Fernando, Wanidu Hasaranga, Kamindu Mendis, Charana Nanayakkara, Vishad Randika, Lahiru Samarakoon, Asitha Fernando, Lahiru Kumara, Jehan Daniel, Damitha Silva, Thilan Nimesh

Windward Islands put in an all-round showing to beat Combined Campuses and Colleges by nine wickets via the Duckworth-Lewis method and secure the Regional Super50 title in Bridgetown

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Apr-2013
ScorecardDevon Smith, the tournament’s leading run-scorer, ensured Windward Islands stayed on top in a small chase•WICB Media Photo/Randy Brooks

Windward Islands put in an all-round showing to beat Combined Campuses and Colleges by nine wickets via the Duckworth-Lewis method and secure the Regional Super50 title in Bridgetown. This is the first one-day championship Windwards have won since the 2000-2001 season.CCC lost the toss and were put in to bat. Keon Peters’ opening spell proved decisive as he removed the top three batsmen within eight overs. At one point, CCC were wobbling at 31 for 4, but were able to recover to 121 for 5 through the efforts of captain Kyle Corbin (46) and Nekoli Parris (34).Once Corbin fell, however, CCC began to struggle even more, and they eventually were dismissed for 174 in the final over of the innings. Peters led the way with 4 for 32, while Shillingford’s impressive tournament continued with his haul of 3 for 29 to remove the middle-lower order. Shillingford finished as the tournament’s highest wicket taker, with 17 wickets in six matches at an economy of 2.86.Rain intervened during the innings break, caused a two-hour delay, and subsequently Windward’s target was reduced from to 134 in 29 overs. Devon Smith and Johnson Charles led the way with an opening stand of 100 at over a run-a-ball to effectively end CCC’s chances. Once Charles fell to the bowling of Keswick Williams, Smith and Tyrone Theophile closed out the game in the 23rd over.Smith ended on an unbeaten 67, and finished the tournament as the highest run scorer with 348 runs in eight matches at an average of 58. Man-of-the-Match honours went to Peters and Smith for their vital contributions.Speaking after the game, Liam Sebastien, the Windwards captain, said: “This is very pleasing. It is a long time [since] we won something, and it is just wonderful that we have won this championship.”

Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan allrounder, has been granted an Indian visa and will arrive on Saturday to play for Kings XI Punjab in the IPL

Nagraj Gollapudi13-Apr-2012Azhar Mahmood, the former Pakistan allrounder, has been granted an Indian visa for the IPL but ESPNcricinfo understands it is valid only for Chandigarh and Delhi. Mahmood will arrive on Saturday to play for Kings XI Punjab but will be available only for five games in Chandigarh, at their home ground in Mohali, and one match against Delhi Daredevils in Delhi.Mahmood, who is now a British citizen and plays for Kent, was bought by the franchise at the auction last February for $200,000. He was expected to be available for selection from the beginning of the IPL season but visa delays led him to miss Kings XI’s first three matches.However, his arrival will boost Kings XI, who suffered a setback when England allrounder Stuart Broad was ruled out of the entire IPL season due to a calf strain.Adam Gilchrist, the Kings XI captain, had announced Mahmood’s imminent arrival at the media briefing in Mohali after the game against Pune Warriors India on Thursday. Mahmood, who is the only player in this IPL to have played for Pakistan, tweeted to confirm the development.
Kings XI suffered successive defeats in their first two matches, both away games. Back then Gilchrist had made public his disappointment about not having Mahmood at his disposal, saying Kings XI were missing out on a “class” player.A consistent allrounder in Twenty20 cricket, Mahmood has been one of the top performers for Kent. He was player of the season for Kent in the County Championship last year and finished as the county’s highest run-getter in the domestic T20 tournament, with 485 runs, including a century, from 15 games at a strike-rate of 143.91.