Everywhere you look at Edgbaston, there seems to be a picture of Chris Wright and Keith Barker, grinning broadly, one hand each on the LV= Championship trophy, but Varun Chopra had an equal part to play.

Jon Culley at Edgbaston12-Apr-2013
ScorecardVarun Chopra settled back into the old routine with runs for Warwickshire on a dismal day•PA Photos

Everywhere you look at Edgbaston, there seems to be a picture of Chris Wright and Keith Barker, grinning broadly, one hand each on the LV= Championship trophy. And with good reason. With 118 wickets between them, their strike bowling partnership was the key to many a Warwickshire victory.Yet there was another key alliance at the heart of Warwickshire’s success and the scoreboard at the close of day three in this rain-ruined beginning to their title defence might indicate that it remains in fine working order. The Varun Chopra-Ian Westwood partnership at the top of the order developed into one of the most reliable in the competition. Both batsmen ended the season averaging in the forties and five times they gave the Warwickshire innings the perfect platform by scoring more than 100 runs without being parted.It was a contribution not to be underestimated. If the ability to take 20 wickets is key to winning Championship matches, then amassing totals that can be defended comes a solid second. The left-handed Westwood has endured some tough times in the last few years, fulfilling a career ambition by landing the captaincy but giving it up at the end of the 2010 season when he struggled for form. Subsequently, his place in the side was often little more than a stop gap when Ian Bell was on England duty.He started last year slowly but his form picked up in the second half, when the partnership with Chopra was at its most formidable. In one six-innings sequence the pair compiled stands of 100, 175 and 136. Westwood made two centuries in August, 19 days apart.Westwood’s recovery has been to Chopra’s benefit, too. The more at ease Chopra has become in the partnership, the more consistent has his form been. The only other England qualified batsman to pass 1,000 first-class runs in Division One last season was Nick Compton, who earned his elevation to the Test side as a result.Chopra, a 25-year old right-hander, has prospered, like his team-mate, Wright, since moving to Edgbaston from Essex. He made 1,000 runs in 2011 as well. His reward — alongside Wright — was a place in the 17-man England Performance Programme squad in India and a Lions tour to Australia, where he scored centuries in two 50-over matches, the second in the first meeting with Australia A in Hobart. Like Wright, he has been named also in in the provisional squad for the ICC Champions Trophy.Those spectators with the patience to wait for some action at a dank and gloomy Edgbaston yesterday saw Chopra and Westwood finish 10 short of another three-figure partnership, which will offer Warwickshire encouragement from a match destined to end in a draw. After the fragmented action that followed a 3.30 start, about 90 minutes of play was possible, and the conditions, in terms of pitch and atmospheric conditions, and the need to focus and refocus as stoppage followed stoppage, were hardly ideal for batting. Yet Chopra and Westwood set about their business with a familiar efficiency.Derbyshire might consider themselves a little unlucky. Tim Groenewald saw Chopra dropped on 10, albeit off a very hard chance high in the air to Ross Whiteley at point, and edge just short of first slip on 19. But Chopra picked off nine boundaries to illustrate to the newcomers how narrow are the margins for bowling error in First Division cricket as Warwickshire finished the day with a platform for a decent yield of batting points on the last day, if nothing else.

John Mooney has been suspended for three matches by Cricket Ireland after posting an insensitive tweet about the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher

ESPNcricinfo staff23-Apr-2013John Mooney, the Ireland allrounder, has been suspended for three matches by Cricket Ireland after posting an insensitive tweet about the death of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.Mooney, 31 and from Dublin, tweeted following Baroness Thatcher’s death on April 8 that he hoped her demise was “slow and painful” before quickly deleting the tweet and issuing an apology for causing offence.Cricket Ireland’s chief executive, Warren Deutrom, described the comments as “crass, insensitive and offensive” and Mooney was found to be in breach of his central contract, which prohibits public statements that “denigrate, are derogatory, or prejudicial to the interests of cricket; or are of a nature which brings the game of cricket or Cricket Ireland into disrepute”.Mooney, who has scored 709 runs at 24.44 and taken 34 wickets at 28.55 in 45 ODIs, will now miss Leinster’s inter-provincial matches against Northern on May 6 and North-West on May 14-16 as well as Ireland’s first ODI against Pakistan on May 23. He will be available again for the second ODI on May 26.”John accepted that the tweet was offensive and inappropriate,” Deutrom said. “We took into consideration the fact that he issued a fulsome and swift apology and that he is genuinely remorseful for his action. However, given the breach of his contract and nature of the tweet, we felt it appropriate that a three match sanction be imposed. We have also severely reprimanded John and reminded him of his duties and responsibilities as a high profile international cricketer.”Mooney played for Ireland at the 2007 and 2011 World Cups and hit the winning runs in the famous chase against England. He was also named Ireland player of the year in 2010.

Glamorgan’s hopes of victory over Leicestershire in their LV= County Championship Division Two game were wrecked by the weather

24-May-2013
ScorecardGlamorgan’s hopes of victory over Leicestershire in their LV= County Championship Division Two game were wrecked by the weather, with only 55 minutes of play possible on the final day at Grace Road.Leicestershire, following on 300 runs behind, added another 49 runs for the loss of one wicket in 12.4 overs and were 182 for 2 when the game was abandoned as a draw with 28 overs remaining. Glamorgan collected 10 points from the match and Leicestershire five.Rain and strong winds throughout the morning meant the sides had to wait until 3.30pm before a start could be made, with Leicestershire on 133 for 1 and still 167 runs adrift.It took some sterling work from the groundstaff to make any play possible at all and when the game did start, it was so cold that 10 of the Glamorgan side wore woolly hats. Only Murray Goodwin had the traditional cricket cap on.Graham Wagg even kept his beanie on to bowl, but it was Michael Hogan who claimed the one wicket to fall. He had Greg Smith, 62 not out overnight, lbw for 70 to end a second wicket stand of 58.Australian Joe Burns hit three fours in his score of 18 while Ned Eckersley added 20 runs to his overnight 23, before heavy rain again swept in and the match was abandoned.

Pat Cummins, the Australia fast bowler, will play his first competitive match in nine months for the Northern Ireland Cricket Academy on Wednesday

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Jun-2013Pat Cummins, the Australia fast bowler, will play his first competitive match after nine months with a back injury for the Northern Ireland Cricket Academy on Wednesday.Cummins was named as a non-playing member of the Australia A squad who have played four-day matches against Scotland and Ireland in the past two weeks.The squad have travelled to Bristol to face Gloucestershire on Friday but Cummins will remain in Ireland to play for the NICA against MCC at Carrickfergus, just outside Belfast.Forty-eight hours later he will switch colours to play for MCC against Ireland Under-19s, part of their preparations for the Under-19 World Cup qualifier in August.Cummins has not played since October last year when he bowled four overs for 27 to help Sydney Sixers beat Lions in the Champions League final. During the tournament he complained of stiffness and on his return home was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his back.Cummins made his international debut aged just 18 on Australia’s tour of South Africa in October 2011. His first, and to date only, Test at the Wanderers included 6 for 79 in the second innings, earning him the match award in a narrow Australian victory.He has also impressed in five ODIs, including playing England at Lord’s last year, and a successful World T20 in Sri Lanka where he claimed six wickets at 32.83 to help Australia to the semi-final.Despite the understandable hype surrounding Cummins, his injury history has compelled Cricket Australia to take a conservative approach with him this time around, and he is unlikely to figure in international calculations for some time yet.

Fawad Ahmed pull off a stunning piece of fielding during Australia A’s tight win over Gloucestershire, but his bowling did not make a huge statement

Daniel Brettig in Bristol23-Jun-2013
ScorecardFawad Ahmed had a difficult match with the ball•Associated Press

Fawad Ahmed provided the single most thrilling moment of Australia A’s tighter-than-it-should-have-been victory over Gloucestershire when he clasped a blinding catch at mid-on to account for a stubborn Gareth Roderick. Unfortunately for Ahmed, it was also the most telling contribution he made to the last match before Australia’s selectors decided whether or not to add him to the Ashes squad that assembles in Taunton on Monday.Match figures of 31.2-9-100-1 for Ahmed told a story almost as barren as the tourists’ second innings fade for 111, against a Division Two team that their captain Michael Klinger conceded was still learning how to play “hard first-class cricket”. There were mitigating factors against the success of legspin in the match, cold temperatures keeping hands cold and an icy wind testing Ahmed’s command of length and pace.Ashton Agar’s left-arm spin fared rather better, though their relative tallies of overs suggested the 19-year-old was not being quite so closely observed by the selectors John Inverarity, Rod Marsh and Mickey Arthur. Ahmed’s best was eye-catching, several leg breaks fizzing past groping bats and some googlies misread as comprehensively by Matthew Wade as they were by the Gloucestershire batsmen.But a tally of two wickets from as many matches on the Australia A tour is the first significant reverse Ahmed has suffered since making his state debut for Victoria last summer and quickly factoring into the calculations of selectors, administrators, marketeers and ultimately Federal politicians, who passed legislation to expedite his application for citizenship last week.Questions about Ahmed’s readiness for an Ashes promotion were chief among those raised by the first long-form match played by an Australian team in England this year. Steve Smith, the stand-in captain while Brad Haddin rested, could thank his pace bowling triumvirate of Ryan Harris, Jackson Bird and the fast-rising Chadd Sayers for ensuring the tour would conclude with three victories out of three, but the tourists were placed under considerable pressure before getting there.On the second evening Dan Christian had taken the initiative well away from the bowlers, inflicting particular punishment on Ahmed. He would only add another six runs to his overnight total before the persisting Harris coaxed an outside edge behind, but after Benny Howell was pinned lbw first ball, a series of partnerships down the order had Gloucestershire creeping alarmingly close to their target, Ahmed’s catch notwithstanding.The last pair of Liam Norwell and Tom Smith had scrounged 36 together by the time Sayers claimed a deserved eighth wicket for the match, granting Wade his fifth catch among 23 byes, the morning session extended by an extra half hour for the taking of the final wicket proving a nervous 30 minutes for a team that had seemed in such command on the first day, declaring after a mere 58 overs then rounding up five early wickets.From there they had to fight the match out. Gloucestershire’s ability to fight toe-to-toe with a conglomerate of Australia’s best young players plus a sprinkling of Ashes tourists provided some disquieting evidence to back up the observation of the former England captain Andrew Strauss about what his side had witnessed down under in 2010-11.”We were surprised at the quality of some of the state sides,” Strauss told the . “Australia used to have a conveyor belt of talent but it was noticeable they were a long way behind where they had been four years previously.”On the evidence of this match there is still a lot of catching up to do, for Ahmed and Australia.

Hamish Marshall struck his fourth century of the season on an even first day at Northamptonshire.

02-Aug-2013
ScorecardHamish Marshall led Gloucestershire into a good position before a late collapse•PA Photos

Hamish Marshall struck his fourth century of the season on an even first day at Northamptonshire. Marshall hammered a brilliant 145 off 197 balls including 19 fours and two sixes to help Gloucestershire recover from a shaky start.A late collapse meant the visitors were bowled out for 358 towards the end of the day with David Willey, Andrew Hall and Muhammad Azharullah each taking three wickets for Northants, who then closed on 13 for 0.Gloucestershire won the toss and chose to bat but they lost Chris Dent for a four-ball duck in the third over when he edged Willey to Northants wicketkeeper David Murphy. In Willey’s next over, Gloucestershire’s wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick was trapped lbw for just 2 to leave the visitors 9 for 2.But Alex Gidman helped his side recover from their poor start by racing to 50 off just 54 ball as part of a partnership of 92 with captain Michael Klinger. But Gidman was to throw his wicket away on 59 when he slashed Hall to Willey at point as Gloucestershire reached lunch on 117 for 3.Klinger, though, was to fall three runs short of a composed half-century when he was taken by Murphy off the bowling of Hall in the third over of the afternoon.Marshall then went past 50 off 81 deliveries with a four over extra cover off James Middlebrook as the visitors dominated the rest of the session. He went on to complete his 24th century in first-class cricket – and his third in five innings – off 125 balls before Benny Howell completed his half-century
off 84 deliveries in the last over before tea.But Howell fell on 60 early in the evening when he swept Hall to David Sales at deep square leg to break a fifth-wicket stand of 183. Marshall finally departed two overs after Northants took the second new ball by nudging Azharullah’s leg side strangler to Murphy.James Fuller followed him back to the pavilion as he was bowled by Willey before Will Gidman chopped Azharullah on to his stumps to walk for 15. Craig Miles and Tom Smith were then pinned lbw by Azharullah and Steven Crook respectively, meaning Gloucestershire’s final five wickets had fallen for just 20 runs.Northants captain Stephen Peters and Kyle Coetzer then survived two overs before stumps and will resume tomorrow on 12 and 1 respectively.

Chris Gayle, the captain of the Jamaica Tallawahs, has praised the contributions of Kumar Sangakkara and Andre Russell after the pair helped their side defeat Barbados Tridents by seven wickets

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Aug-2013Chris Gayle, the captain of the Jamaica Tallawahs, has praised the contributions of Kumar Sangakkara and Andre Russell after the pair put on 35 in 11 balls for fourth wicket to help defeat Barbados Tridents by seven wickets and book Jamaica’s place in Saturday’s final against the Guyana Amazon Warriors.Sangakkara, who signed for Jamaica last week, anchored the innings with an unbeaten 50, and added a crucial 71 for the second wicket with Chadwick Walton to set the tone for Russell’s late onslaught, and Gayle believed his experience was vital in seeing Jamaica through.”He made a big impact and we’re happy for that. We all know what a class and key player he is, having done it worldwide, and we’re pleased that he took us over the line,” Gayle said. “Being a [former] captain, he knows what the situation requires. Hopefully he can do it again tomorrow, so that we can finish with a high and can celebrate.”Gayle said that despite facing an increasing run-rate, Jamaica were always confident of chasing down Barbados’ 148 so long as they had big-hitters like Russell to come.”Once he [Russell] gets going, it’s going to be difficult to stop him. He’s a dangerous player and played a big part by finishing it for us.”It was just clean hitting, especially the last ball that he finished the match with. You don’t see this often, batsmen playing shots like in baseball. We’re very pleased and hopefully this will give us some momentum.”Despite the positive feedback from Gayle, Sangakkara, who joined Jamaica last week, was a little more critical of his own batting, and was relieved that Russell’s late blitz took the team home. “I could’ve got a few more singles, especially at the back-end when I was trying to hit the ball hard and was losing shape and not getting off strike,” Sangakkara said. “We could’ve got into trouble, but the way Russell hit the ball, particularly the Roger Federer serve at the end, was great.”Russell, who is Jamaica’s second-highest run-getter in the tournament so far, with 170 at a strike-rate of 191.01, said that he had always backed his ability to produce the big hits.”I was just batting with a clear head. I don’t know when something like this (a 6-ball 29) will happen again, but I knew that I had the potential for making these whirlwind scores,” he said. “Well done to the guys who set the tone and made my job a bit more comfortable, to just come in and play my natural game.”Looking ahead to Saturday’s final against Guyana, Gayle said that his team would have to be at their very best if they were to prevail against the tournament favourites. “They are the only team to beat us twice and have been playing good all-round cricket. They have the best bowling attack in the competition so it’s going to be tough. But if we bat properly, we have a good chance.”

A century from Mignon du Preez, followed by effective spells from South Africa women’s spinners, ensured Bangladesh women remained winless on their tour

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Sep-2013
ScorecardA century from Mignon du Preez, followed by effective spells from South Africa women’s spinners, ensured Bangladesh women remained winless on their tour. The 95-run loss also meant Bangladesh had conceded the ODI series 0-2 to South Africa, with a game to play.Bangladesh chose to bowl and enjoyed early success as Jahanara Alam removed Trisha Chetty. However, a century third-wicket stand between Lizelle Lee and du Preez thwarted the bowling attack. Bangladesh managed to briefly come back into the game despite the 106-run partnership, taking three wickets for two runs in the space of an over, but another big partnership followed for South Africa. Du Preez kept going in the company of Dane van Niekerk, bringing up a hundred for herself and steering South Africa well past 200.Bangladesh made a decent start in pursuit of 238, their openers putting on a half-century stand, but then the spinners ran through the middle and lower order. Apart from the top two, only one batsman got into double-digits as legspinner van Niekerk and offspinner Sunette Loubser picked up combined figures of 20-5-42-6. Bangladesh were eventually bowled out in the 49th over, for just 142.