Defending champions Surrey recorded their first win of the Vitality County Championship season as they knocked over Kent by an innings and 37 runs on the final day at Canterbury.
Resuming in search of five wickets for victory, the Brown Caps endured a pocket of resistance in the shape of Joey Evison’s 53 and Matt Parkinson’s career-best 39 before dismissing the hosts for 262 on the fourth afternoon.
Spinner Cameron Steel took two more to finish with three for 38, cementing his spot as the country’s leading wicket taker after three rounds with 20 scalps, and Dan Worrall returned four for 31.
After two rain-affected draws, Surrey took a maximum 24 points back the Kia Oval to move second in Division One behind Essex.
At Taunton, persistent showers prevented Nottinghamshire pair Joe Clarke and Will Young adding to a mammoth partnership of 392 in a draw against Somerset.
Just nine overs were possible before the washout was confirmed, leaving Clarke 213 not out and New Zealand’s Young 174no in their county’s record third-wicket stand. Play was abandoned after lunch, with the away side 440 for two in their second innings.
At the Utilita Bowl, Warwickshire and Hampshire put the finishing touches to another rain-ruined draw.
With no real prospect of a positive result, Bears opener Rob Yates took his chance to compile an unbeaten 84 that means he, partner Alex Davies and number three Will Rhodes all average more than 100 for the season.
Liam Dawson took two wickets to take his match haul to seven for Hampshire, who saw the visitors put up 205 for four before the handshakes.
In Division Two, Sussex got over the line against Gloucestershire as Cheteshwar Pujara withstood the best efforts of Pakistan’s Zafar Gohar.
The India Test star had the calmest head in Hove as he notched an undefeated 44 to see his side to a target of 144. Six of his team-mates did not survive the chase, left-arm spinner Gohar claiming five for 59 to keep the home team on their toes.
Pujara remained until the job was done, earning a four-wicket win, with West Indies quick Jayden Seales earlier finishing with four for 18 as Gloucestershire were rounded up for 205.
Leicestershire’s hopes of a victory push against Derbyshire were also frustrated by the weather, with no play possible on Monday. Derbyshire survived six down and 183 behind in the second innings, but took just one point to the Foxes’ eight.
It was a similar story for Northamptonshire, who were unable to turn their first-innings declaration on 605 for six into a win over Glamorgan at Wantage Road.
The teams hung around until 4pm awaiting a start time that never came, with the Welsh side closing 230 behind on 104 for three.
CWI's Lead Selector Haynes confident in T20 World Cup squad- “We’ve got a team that can win this World Cup”
CWI Lead Selector, Dr. The Hon. Desmond Haynes, believes the squad that has been selected to represent the West Indies at the upcoming ICC T20 World Cup set for June 1-29 in the Caribbean and the USA can replicate the performances of the region’s title-winning squads in 2012 and 2016.
“This is a very good time in West Indies cricket. I believe that we’ve got a team that can win this World Cup and I feel damn good about this,” Haynes said in a Friday press conference announcing the squad.
“We’ve had preparations for the last year. The majority of the players, we had them involved and they were very successful. This is a very exciting time for us and I would hope that everyone in the Caribbean and all the West Indies fans support us because this is our best chance,” he added.
Also on hand at Friday’s press conference was West Indies Men’s ODI and T20I head coach Daren Sammy who also expressed confidence in the squad ahead of the tournament.
“We’ve known how to select winning teams. We’ve done it before and I think, as a selection group, we’re really excited about it,” Sammy said.
“It’s an exciting time and this preparation did not start now. It started from the last World Cup in Australia. What we’ve been able to do throughout the last year as a T20 group, the players we’ve exposed, has brought us to this moment and I think we’re about to knock it out of this world,” he added.
Two of the standout names in the 15-man squad were pacer Shamar Joseph and Shimron Hetmyer.
Joseph made his Test debut during the recent tour to Australia and became a worldwide phenomenon when he took a seven-wicket haul in the final innings despite an injured foot to give West Indies a dramatic eight-run win at the Gabba in the second Test. It was West Indies' first Test win in Australia since 1997.
This will be his first opportunity to represent the West Indies in the T20I format. He’s currently getting his first crack at franchise T20 cricket as he is a member of the Lucknow Super Giants in the ongoing Indian Premier League (IPL).
“You really can’t question Shamar Joseph’s skills. We saw him in Australia. We were looking at someone up front to bowl in the first powerplay and we think he ticks that box for us,” Haynes said.
Hetmyer is making his return to the squad after being left out for the tour of Australia. Haynes said it was a tough time deciding whether to pick Hetmyer or Kyle Mayers.
“It was a very close decision between Kyle and Hettie but we look at it from the point of view that we wanted the extra batsman to be one batting down the order,” he said.
Since the start of Daren Sammy’s tenure as head coach, he has always placed an emphasis on the importance of roles in a successful T20 outfit.
He believes that this 15-man group has covered all the necessary bases.
“We are ready. When you look at role definition from the group we’ve selected, I think we’ve come up with the best combination to help us win this World Cup.
The hosts will open their campaign against Papua New Guinea at Providence in Guyana on June 2.
Full squad: Rovman Powell (C), Alzarri Joseph (VC), Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosein, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Gudakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd
Shamar Joseph in as West Indies announces 15-member T20 World Cup squad
There were no real surprises, as West Indies announced their 15-member squad for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, which will be co-hosted in the Caribbean and United States.
The Darren Sammy-coached squad to be led by Jamaican Rovman Powell includes all the usual suspects, with rising fast bowling sensation Shamar Joseph being the only fresh face to the T20 unit.
West Indies, a two-time champion, having won the tournament in 2012 and 2016, will contest Group C of the global showpiece alongside Afghanistan, New Zealand, and two ICC Associate teams, Papua New Guinea and Uganda.
The Caribbean side is scheduled to kick off its title charge against Papa New Guinea on June 2, in Guyana.
All teams are allowed to make changes to their squad until 25 May, after which any alteration will require approval from ICC's Event Technical Committee.
More to come...
Squad: Rovman Powell (c), Alzarri Joseph, Johnson Charles, Roston Chase, Shimron Hetmyer, Jason Holder, Shai Hope, Akeal Hosain, Shamar Joseph, Brandon King, Gudakesh Motie, Nicholas Pooran, Andre Russell, Sherfane Rutherford, Romario Shepherd
"We are where we want to be": Spooner pleased with response at box offices despite early glitches
Despite some early glitches at Kensington Oval’s box, in Barbados, Philip Spooner says things remain on the up where ticket sales for the upcoming ICC Men’s T20 World Cup is concerned.
Spooner, the tournament’s global media operations Manager, acknowledged the early problems, but said efforts were made to rectify the issues, as cricket fans flocked the venues to secure tickets for the highly-anticipated June 1-29 tournament, to be hosted in the Caribbean and United States.
To celebrate 30 days to go to the start of the tournament, box offices were opened on Thursday until the end of the event across the six host locations -Antigua and Barbuda: Antigua Recreation Ground; Barbados: Kensington Oval; Guyana: Guyana Cricket Board Office; Saint Lucia: Daren Sammy Cricket Ground; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: Commercial Centre, and Trinidad and Tobago: Queen’s Park Oval and National Cricket Centre -in the West Indies.
“We apologise to the members of the public for the challenges that they faced, but we are very happy to see people coming out because it shows the level of interest, and this is a tremendous first day of operations.
“People want to be part of this event and they are participating meaningfully. We are very happy about that. We will put everything in place that needs to be put in place for our customers, our fans, who are the biggest supporters of the games,” Spooner said in an interview with Barbados Today.
“So far, the atmosphere has been amazing; there has been a lot of attention to the tournament globally, it is literally out of this world. We had the launch of the amazing anthem and the music video with Sean Paul and Kes, two of the best and most visible global artists in the region. We are very happy with that aspect of how things are going. The preparations of the fields and pitches have also been good, obviously, there is still work to be done as we are a month away, but we are where we want to be,” he added.
SportsMax is the Caribbean sports channel of choice, committed to providing sporting content of the highest quality to the Caribbean, delivered by a team of highly innovative, passionate and qualified professionals.
(876) 619-7629
digitalmedia@sportsmax.tv
