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Unbeaten second-wicket partnership sees South Africa close to overhauling tourists

Andrew Fidel Fernando03-Jan-2021Anrich Nortje gutted Sri Lanka’s middle order after Wiaan Mulder set a top-order collapse in motion, as South Africa skittled the visitors for 157 and moved into a commanding position at the Wanderers. Nortje frequently hit speeds of above 145kph on a pitch with steepling bounce at times, unsettling several Sri Lanka batsmen with his bouncer, and backing them into positions where they did not trust their defence against him. Many fell playing attacking shots, and Nortje claimed 6 for 56 – the best figures of his fledgling career.After Sri Lanka had been dismissed inside 41 overs, shortly before tea, Dean Elgar saw South Africa through to the close with an unbeaten 92 off 119 balls – his team on the cusp of moving into the lead with nine wickets still in hand. He and Russie van der Dussen had put on 114 together by stumps.Sri Lanka’s dispiriting day was buoyed only by the innings of Kusal Perera, whose 60 off 67 suggested Sri Lanka might go on to have a much bigger first innings than they eventually did. Beyond that, and the bowling of Asitha Fernando who claimed his maiden Test wicket, there was little for the visitors to celebrate. Already, their vastly depleted side may be out of this match. Both previous Tests they’ve played at the Wanderers have ended in innings defeats, and unless there is a substantially improved performance on Monday, this match could head in a similar direction.What will be especially disappointing for Sri Lanka was that they were actually in decent shape after the first 20 overs of the day. Nortje had dismissed Dimuth Karunaratne early by gaining sharp bounce from just short of a length, but Perera had moved into attack mode, thumping South Africa’s bowlers through the off side with particular relish. He was hit a few times on the body early in the innings, particularly by Nortje, and his innings contained 11 fours, all told.Anrich Nortje celebrates on his way to a six-wicket haul•AFP via Getty Images

But then it was his wicket that started Sri Lanka’s huge slide. Having played out a maiden against Mulder’s first over, Perera drove at a wide-ish away-seamer and sent a catch to gully. Kusal Mendis was then nicked off by Mulder later in the same over, and Lahiru Thirimanne’s edge was also found an over after that. When Nortje had debutant Minod Bhanuka caught behind off the last ball before lunch, Sri Lanka had lost four wickets for 13 runs in the space of four overs to be 84 for 5 at the end of the first session.Niroshan Dickwella and Dasun Shanaka did not last long against Nortje after lunch – both falling playing attacking shots – and the collapse had cost Sri Lanka six wickets for 39. Wanindu Hasaranga and Dushmantha Chameera offered some semblance of resistance, putting on a stroke-filled 39 for the eighth wicket as both made scores in excess of 20, but Nortje eventually returned to clean up the tail.In response, Elgar had been solid from the outset, rarely troubled by the Sri Lanka quicks for more than an over or two. He was especially good with the flicks off his toes early in his innings, when Sri Lanka were guilty of bowling too straight at him, but eventually the cover drive and the cut also became productive strokes. He found frequent boundaries, and maintained a strike rate of over 70 almost right the way through his stay, slowing only in the period just after Aiden Markram was dismissed.van der Dussen meanwhile, struggled early in his innings, taking 25 balls to get off the mark, after having two lbw appeals raised against him. He settled towards the end of the day, and even hit Hasaranga’s legspin for consecutive fours in the last half hour, as South Africa closed within touching distance of Sri Lanka’s total.

The former India captain feels that with Ravi Shastri having been around for as long as he has, the team should start winning world titles

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Aug-2019Virat Kohli often speaks about doing whatever it takes to win. He says that’s how he is able to bat on even when he is running on empty and the same philosophy had led to him fielding 38 different Test XIs at the start of his Test captaincy. It appears the clock has been reset again with India going into their first match of the World Championship without premier offspinner R Ashwin, triggering the attention of, among others, former India captain Sourav Ganguly.

Batting coach candidate Rathour ‘a fantastic guy’

Sourav Ganguly had glowing words for Vikram Rathour, who is favourite to replace Sanjay Bangar as India’s batting coach. “I have played with him, our Test match debuts were in the same series. He just made his debut one game ahead of me, and I played with him in the junior levels as well. Fantastic guy, he’s a fantastic gentleman.
“He’s worked hard at the grassroots level with Himachal Pradesh. I am the president of the Cricket Association of Bengal and I’ve dealt with him in the last four-five years in sending teams to Himachal when Himachal would come for the Ranji Trophy matches. He’s risen from absolutely the basics of Ranji Trophy and putting the hard yards with Himachal boys so hopefully he does well, hopefully all of them along with Bharat, and the fielding coach they can get this team to win bigger medals and bigger trophies because this team has got all the talent.

“I would say that this is one area where Virat needs to just be a bit more consistent,” Ganguly said at an event in Mumbai on Friday. “Pick players and give them a bit more consistent opportunities – for them to get that confidence, rhythm, I have said that before. You saw how Shreyas Iyer played in that ODI series [136 runs at 68 against West Indies] – you pick him and you give him the freedom to play those matches and I think that needs to happen with a lot of players and I am sure Virat will do that.”ALSO READ – Ashwin left out of Antigua XI in ‘astonishing’ selection callKohli’s mixing and matching of personnel coincided with several injuries to key players but there were also instances where first-choice picks like Ajinkya Rahane (Cape Town 2017) and Cheteshwar Pujara (St Lucia 2016) were placed aside for more aggressive options. And, in the ongoing Test against West Indies, the spinner that the team trusted – Ravindra Jadeja – scored a backs-to-the-wall half-century that looks set to provide India with a sizeable lead. Still he had to beat a couple of in-form players to get into the XI.”I was also surprised to see Kuldeep Yadav left out,” Ganguly said. “The last Test he played against Australia, he got five wickets, if you remember in Sydney on a good flat pitch, he picked up five wickets against Australia. But Jadeja also has been in good form, the surface yesterday at Antigua needed three fast bowlers because we saw the seam movement the fast bowlers got and it was a question of the spin.”Ashwin’s record is phenomenal to leave him out in the West Indies, so it’s a decision which Kohli has made and we will find out in the next couple of days how far Jadeja goes on to pick wickets on this surface. Because this pitch will get up and down, as the game progresses, you can see that sort of indication from the first day of the Test, we will have to wait to see but that’s the competition of Indian cricket.”Ganguly also believes that the team – and especially head coach Ravi Shastri, who has just been reappointed for a two-year term – have been together for long enough to start winning world titles.”Ravi has been around for a while – five years he’s completed so he’s got an extension for two more years – hopefully now India can now go all the way in the two upcoming tournaments that are coming up, which is the T20 World Cup and the Champions Trophy which has now become a T20 format,” Ganguly said. “So I hope they do well, they’re doing well, they get to the semi-finals. In 2015 in Australia they struggled, in 2017 in Mumbai West Indies got the better of them and even in this World Cup (2019) so hopefully they will get to the next step and create a winning combination.”

The allrounder said that tensions had now eased and he is focused on being as valuable as possible to county and country

Andrew McGlashan14-Jun-2018Yorkshire threatened to tear up David Willey’s contract when he took up a last-minute offer to join the IPL on the eve of the English season.Willey was picked up by Chennai Super Kings, the eventual champions, as a late injury replacement which did not go down well with director cricket Martyn Moxon who bemoaned an “impossible situation” for the county.Willey said the decision to take up the offer was a “no brainer” but it led to considerable tensions. They have now eased, but Willey believes counties have look at what they can potentially gain from allowing players to go and play in India.”I was threatened with them ripping my contract up which wasn’t great, but that has all been resolved now,” Willey said. “I think the landscape of the modern game is changing and I do think that counties should try and work with it rather than work against it and look at the longer term picture.”These guys who go and play in these competitions around the world ultimately you would think that their counties will benefit from it whether it be immediately that summer when they come back and contribute to winning games or whether they go on and help develop youngsters down the line.”Willey has conceded that Yorkshire, who signed Willey in 2016 with the allrounder at the time keen to push his Test credentials, may not see as much of him as they would like but he has just put pen to paper on a new one-year deal with the club. He does not see himself going the route of Alex Hales and Adil Rashid in ditching first-class cricket.”Naturally the way things have worked out over the past few years I haven’t played much four-day cricket but that is no reflection of my ambition to play red-ball cricket, it is just the way things have worked out,” he said.Willey will have a chance to play the latter part of the Championship season with England’s white-ball cricket for the season finished by mid-July, but for now his focus is on the one-day series against Australia.He played a key role in the opening victory at The Oval with an unbeaten 35, his highest ODI score, when England wobbled in the run chase. Willey admitted he had “probably underachieved” with the bat at international level where he has a different role down the order than he does with Yorkshire.”Yesterday allowed me to play in my natural way because the state of the game meant there was plenty of overs left to get the runs so I could play my natural game which suited me,” he said. “It is a different role and it requires a different set of skills to what I do back at Yorkshire.”Willey also helped set the tone with the ball when he removed Travis Head in his first over and it is ultimately his impact with the ball that will determined how often he slots into the one-day side. In this series he has the chance for an extended run in the starting XI due to the injuries to Ben Stokes and Chris Woakes.”No-one is guaranteed a place and my position is certainly not guaranteed a spot in the side so whoever is playing well gets an opportunity and it is up to them to make that spot their own,” he said.While known as a threat when the new ball swings, as he showed at The Oval to remove Head, Willey is conscious of expanding his range of skills. He showed a glimpse of a new tactic by bowling wide yorkers against Scotland and has also tried to learn of AJ Tye’s slower balls having played with the Australia seamer in the Big Bash for Perth Scorchers.”I need to make sure I am swinging that new ball and taking wickets inside that Powerplay,” he said. I might get driven a few times but with the sideways movement I’m in the game.”In the case of AJ Tye, he’s got a brilliant knuckle ball which I’m trying to develop myself, but it isn’t quite as good as his.”You need to have different variations in white-ball cricket, it is crucial to be able to combat the flat pitches, and playing in different environments means you need to develop your game to cope in different ways.”

While the outfield in Bengaluru was rated as very good, it is understood that one of the main factors in Chris Broad’s pitch appraisal was the variable bounce

Nagraj Gollapudi14-Mar-2017The pitch at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, which hosted the second Test between Australia and India last week, has been given a “below average” rating by the ICC match referee, Chris Broad. Earlier, Broad had rated the pitch for the Pune Test, the first of the series “poor”.While the outfield in Bengaluru was rated as “very good”, it is understood that one of the main factors in Broad’s appraisal of the pitch was the variable bounce. In contrast to the series opener in Pune, which ended within three days, the second Test was low-scoring thriller that went into the final session of the fourth day. India finally prevailed on fourth afternoon, and levelled the four-match series 1-1 after Australia lost their last six wickets for 11.A below-average rating from a match referee is common and carries no penalty or fine. Of the six options available for the match referee to evaluate a pitch, a below-average rating ranks ahead of “poor” and “unfit”.A rough patch outside the right-hand batsmen’s off stump offered turn and bounce to Nathan Lyon, who took eight wickets on the first day. Second day onwards, the fast bowlers got quite a few balls to stay low and shoot through the ground. Virat Kohli, Mitchell Marsh, Steven Smith and R Ashwin fell to grubbers.Pune was the second Indian pitch to be rated poor in two seasons, after India beat South Africa in Nagpur in three days in 2015-16. Since the ICC began its pitch and outfield monitoring process in 2006, four of the seven Full-Member pitches rated poor or unfit have belonged to India.The third Test of the series will be played in Ranchi from March 16. Like Pune, Ranchi will be making its Test debut, and the pitch there has been a subject of speculation.

The BCCI ombudsman, Justice AP Shah, has asked the board to take an “unequivocal undertaking” from spinner Harbhajan Singh that he will no longer be in the management of the sports apparel company, Bhajji Sports

Nagraj Gollapudi18-Feb-2016The BCCI ombudsman, Justice AP Shah, has asked the board to take an “unequivocal undertaking” from spinner Harbhajan Singh that he will no longer be in the management of the sports apparel company, Bhajji Sports, and will not be associated with the company, even in terms of sponsorship, for the duration of his contract with the Indian board. Shah also took the opportunity to tell the BCCI that he had received a lot of allegations similar to the complaint against Harbhajan, especially from the state associations, and suggested that players, coaches, selectors and administrators make prior disclosures of similar associations with companies or academies.Shah’s decision came after a conflict of interest allegation was filed last month questioning Harbhajan’s links to a sports apparel company that sponsors various state teams in domestic cricket.In a complaint filed against Harbhajan in January, Mumbai-based activist Niraj Gunde stated that Bhajji Sports had reportedly sponsored six Ranji Trophy sides. Shah’s ruling noted that the company was owned by Mrs Avtar Kaur, Harbhajan’s mother, and the company was started before the spinner’s current contract with the board came into effect and before the present rules regarding conflict of interest were framed. Harbhajan was given a Grade C contract by the BCCI in November for the 2015-16 period.”The Ombudsman notes that this company appears to be run, not by Mr Singh, but by his mother,” Shahs said in an e-mail sent to Harbhajan, Gunde and the BCCI on Wednesday. “It must be mentioned that several cases have been brought to the attention of the Ombudsman where companies associated with cricket management or sporting apparel, or cricket coaching/training academies, are run in the names of relatives of cricketers, with which the cricketer is also associated or connected. In many of these cases, although the company is owned by someone else, it is named after the cricketer in question. In the present case, the Ombudsman notes that the two news reports submitted by the applicant show Mr Singh’s association with Bhajji Sports. The veracity of the news reports is not challenged by Mr Singh.”According to Shah the only course of action he would recommend for Harbhajan was to dissociate himself from Bhajji Sports completely as long as he had a BCCI contract. “Given the facts and circumstances of the case, the Ombudsman believes that the best course of action may be that the BCCI take an unequivocal undertaking from Mr Singh that he will no way be involved in the management of the company, Bhajji Sports, and that under no circumstances will he be associated with the company’s products (including by way of sponsorship), so long as his contract with the BCCI is alive,” Shah said.Making a broader point in his ruling on similar conflict of interest situations, Shah
stressed the need for players, coaches, selectors, administrators at both national and state levels to disclose any conflict in context of the rules laid down on the issue by the BCCI.”The Ombudsman recommends that all concerned individuals (cricketers, selectors,
coaches, and administrators) should be required to make standard disclosures about their affiliations in the context of the conflict of interest rules (which may pertain, for example, to cricket coaching/training academies, sports management companies, sports apparel manufacturers, etc.),” Shah said.”If the disclosures reveal that an individual does have such an association, they may be asked to either terminate their association with such companies/academies, or asked to resign from their position as cricketer/selector/coach/administrator, as covered by the conflict of interest rules.”

Former Pakistan offspinner Saqlain Mushtaq will conduct a three-week spin-bowling clinic for a select group of current and emerging West Indies spinners, including three women cricketers, from September 3

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Aug-2013Former Pakistan offspinner Saqlain Mushtaq will conduct a three-week spin-bowling clinic for a select group of current and emerging West Indies spinners, including three women cricketers, from September 3.Saqlain was invited to conduct the clinic on the suggestion of West Indies coach, Ottis Gibson in a bid to better the skills of players who are likely to represent West Indies at different levels.The group of spinners includes Devendra Bishoo, Shane Shillingford, Veerasammy Permaul, Ashley Nurse, Anisa Mohammed, Shaquana Quintyne and Stafanie Taylor. The players were picked by the WICB selection panel.Sunil Narine, Samuel Badree and Nikita Miller were considered for selection but could not be picked due to their unavailability. Narine and Badree are scheduled to play in the Champions League T20, while Miller has been picked for the West Indies A squad for the India tour in September. Permaul and Nurse will also leave the clinic to travel with the West Indies A squad.Saqlain, renowned as one of the first offspinners to use the doosra, took 208 wickets in 49 Tests and 288 wickets in 169 ODIs over a career that stretched between 1995 and 2004. After a successful county stint with Surrey, he was appointed as a spin consultant by New Zealand Cricket in 2009 and has, more recently, played the same role with the Bangladesh team.Spinners selected to attend the clinic: Devendra Bishoo, Jesse Bootan, Yannic Cariah, Bryan Charles, Akeem Dewar, Larry Edwards, Ramaal Lewis, Gudakesh Motie-Kanhai, Ashley Nurse, Veerasammy Permaul, Shane Shillingford, Jomel Warrican, Shaquana Quintyne, Stafanie Taylor, Anisa Mohammed

The Australia A batsmen, led by captain Ed Cowan, enjoyed a productive start to their tour of England as they made 362 for 4 against Derbyshire

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Jul-2012
ScorecardEd Cowan began Australia A’s tour with a hundred•AFP

The Australia A batsmen, led by captain Ed Cowan, enjoyed a productive start to their tour of England as they made 362 for 4 against Derbyshire. Cowan laid the platform with 109 and the middle-order built on his work with brisk half-centuries from George Bailey and Joe Burns.Batting is Australia’s biggest concern at the moment and one of the major aims of this trip for Australia A is build knowledge and expertise in English conditions ahead of next year’s Ashes. Cowan, who currently holds one of the opening slots in the Test side, prepared for this trip with a short spell with Gloucestershire and carried his good form into this match as he reached three figures off a spritely 123 balls.Following the early loss of Michael Klinger, caught by fellow Australian Usman Khawaja off Mark Turner, there were substantial partnerships throughout the innings. Cowan and Peter Forrest, who is one of four players in this team who were on the recent one-day tour, added 89 for the second wicket before David Wainwright, the left-arm spinner, removed Forrest for the first of his three wickets.Shortly after reaching his hundred Cowan was stumped off Wainwright but Bailey, Australia’s Twenty20 captain, played a forthright innings that included 12 fours and two sixes to keep the momentum going. With an eye on the future Joe Burns, a highly-rated 22-year-old from Queensland, began his tour promisingly with a brisk 74 including three sixes, two of which came in three balls off Wainwright in the last over before the declaration.In reply, Derbyshire made a steady start against Mitchell Johnson and Jackson Bird – the former well known to English audiences and the latter who has 53 wickets in eight first-class matches at 16 – but Matt Lineker fell shortly before the close to Mitchell Starc.

Lancashire revived their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Friends Life t20 with a convincing 26-run win against Durham at Old Trafford

01-Jul-2011
ScorecardLancashire revived their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Friends Life t20 with a convincing 26-run win against Durham at Old Trafford.Batting first, Lancashire made 161 for 5 , with stand-in captain Steven Croft and Karl Brown each scoring 51 off 36 balls, and the home side then restricted Durham to 135 for 9 in reply. The victory saw Lancashire move to within a point of fourth-placed Durham in the North Group and gain some revenge for their trouncing at Chester-le-Street a week ago.Durham’s bid to overhaul Lancashire’s total got off to a poor start as they lost both Phil Mustard and Ian Blackwell inside three overs with just 22 on the board. Junaid Khan then bowled Paul Collingwood round his legs for 3 and the visitors’ fortunes declined further as Stephen Parry and Gary Keedy took two wickets apiece to leave Durham floundering on 68 for seven in the 12th over.Scott Borthwick and Liam Plunkett mounted a revival with a 46-run eighth-wicket stand, and Lancashire were starting to count the cost of long-on Tom Smith dropping Borthwick off Parry when the left-hander had made 20.Durham needed 50 runs off the final three overs, but Khan ran out Borthwick for 30 and, despite Plunkett clubbing Mahmood for two sixes in the 19th over, the visitors finished short. Plunkett was run out for 41 off the penultimate ball of the innings.Keedy finished with an impressive 2 for 17 and Parry 2 for 27, but it was Khan who was the pick of the attack as he took 2 for 20 on his Old Trafford debut.Lancashire’s innings had got off to a poor start when opener Stephen Moore played on to Mitchell Claydon for 7. However, Tom Smith and Croft staged a recovery with a careful second-wicket partnership of 37 in 31 balls before Smith was caught by his namesake Will Smith at long-on off Gareth Breese for 22.Lancashire then moved up through the gears as Brown and Croft shared a thrilling 78-run partnership in 8.2 overs. Durham’s bowling and fielding became ragged and Brown and Croft capitalised on any errors, both batsmen hitting two sixes.Croft eventually perished when he miscued Collingwood to Breese at cover, but Brown, who had benefited from a missed stumping by Mustard when on seven, carried on to complete a maiden Twenty20 half-century before he was run out.Sajid Mahmood and Farveez Maharoof took 14 runs off the last over bowled by Claydon to help Lancashire set what would prove to be a winning total.

Bangladesh secured a confidence-boosting victory in their final warm-up match before the one-day series against England as they beat Middlesex by 141 runs at Lord’s

Andrew McGlashan at Lord's05-Jul-2010
ScorecardImrul Kayes added 143 for the third wicket with Jahurul Islam•PA Photos

Bangladesh secured a confidence-boosting victory in their final warm-up match before the one-day series against England as they beat Middlesex by 141 runs at Lord’s. The success was set up by a 143-run stand between Jahurul Islam (88) and Imrul Kayes (77) which laid the platform for an imposing 301 for 7. The home side only briefly threatened while Owais Shah was making 61.In their opening practice match against Sussex the tourists had embarrassingly collapsed to 104 all out against a second-string attack. Middlesex also fielded a weak line-up and this time the batsmen managed to cash in to give themselves a valuable confidence boost before the first ODI, at Trent Bridge, on Thursday. The bowlers, led by Mashrafe Mortaza’s tight opening spell, then produced a solid performance as the spinners made inroads.However Jahurul, who made his Test debut against England in March, was the stand-out performer with an elegant innings and looked set for a hundred before lofting into the deep. But it was also an important performance from Kayes who had produced some turgid displays in the recent Asia Cup. Here he showed that he could find another gear as he struck three sixes in his 92-ball stay, albeit against friendly bowling.At the start of the innings all eyes were on Tamim Iqbal to see if he could reproduce the sort of display that lit up the Test match here in May when he wrote his name into the history books as the first Bangladesh century-marker at headquarters. He started brightly with a series of clumping drives as he raced to 28 off 20 balls, but then missed a wild swing across the line at Robbie Williams.Junaid Siddique, who had also impressed during that Test, fell three overs later when he clubbed a drive to mid-on to leave Bangladesh 50 for 2, but this time the innings didn’t descend into freefall. Kayes bedded in to provide the anchor, while Jahurul produced some attractive strokeplay, especially through the off side, to keep the scoreboard moving at a healthy rate.The bowling was unthreatening, but the pair maintained their concentration with Jahurul first to his fifty from a sprightly 42 deliveries then Kayes followed shortly afterwards from a more sedate 67 balls. Kayes departed when he tried to loft Toby Roland-Jones down the ground and skied a thick outside edge to backward point and Jahurul couldn’t clear the boundary either off Tom Smith’s left-arm spin.Shakib Al Hasan, replaced for this leg of tour as captain by Mortaza, made 38 and Mushfiqur Rahim hit the ball cleanly during the batting Powerplay before picking out deep square-leg as he tried to clear the Tavern boundary.Mortaza then made a breakthrough in his opening over when John Simpson dragged into his stumps and his new-ball partner, Shafiul Islam, picked up Jackson Thompson in the fourth over when the opener pulled to mid-on. Shah and Dawid Malan provided a platform for the chase as they added 87 in 14 overs, but not for the first time Shah was involved in a run out when he set off for a single then declined with Malan already committed.Shah was dropped by Mushfiqur Rahim on 57 as he charged Shakib, but two balls later the left-arm spinner had his revenge as Shah missed a sweep and was lbw. Tom Scollay’s first innings for Middlesex was an undistinguished affair which ended with a horrid swing to leg as the chase subsided with 10 overs to spare.

County successfully appeals “disproportionate” punishment for outsized bat during Blast match

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Sep-2024Worcestershire have received a suspended two-points deduction for the next season’s Vitality Blast, after their allrounder, Josh Cobb, was deemed to have used an illegally-sized bat in their North Group match with Durham in July.Cobb admitted a breach of ECB Directives 3.2 and 3.3 after his bat failed a bat-gauge test during the Durham match, at which stage he had not yet faced a delivery. The Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) adjudicator originally imposed a straight points deduction, but this was amended on appeal to a suspended penalty, which will be imposed if Worcestershire commit a further breach of this nature.It is the second such penalty to be levelled in county cricket this summer, following the 12-point deduction that Essex were last month handed in the County Championship, following Feroz Khushi’s breach of the regulations during their opening fixture of the season, against Nottinghamshire in April.Essex issued a scathing riposte to that verdict, with Keith Fletcher, the club president, decrying it as “stupid”, not least because it wrecked the club’s hopes of challenging for the County Championship, with their final match of the season, at home to Surrey – who have already been crowned champions – taking place this week.Worcestershire were similarly aghast at the original verdict, and explained in their appeal that the loss of two points could mean the difference between reaching the knock-outs of the Vitality Blast and an early elimination.”Being docked points next year potentially/effectively puts a club of our size, with our resources, out of contention for qualification to the later rounds in 2025,” the club wrote to the adjudicator, Chris Tickle. “This has an impact on next year’s squad, coaching team, sponsors and, therefore, the club’s finances. This impact is potentially devastating to us and is disproportionate.”In his amended verdict, Tickle wrote: “Given those circumstances, I am persuaded that it is in the interests of justice to review my decision.”Dave Lewis, the interim director of the Cricket Regulator, said: “I am pleased that we were able to work with Worcestershire CCC and the Cricket Discipline Commission and that the adjudicator was able to reconsider their original decision in this case.”We also note that this is the second oversized bat case this year, and the Cricket Regulator will be working with counties, players, and officials to inform them about the issue with a view to preventing a recurrence next season.”The Cricket Regulator is the independent body which enforces the rules for domestic professional cricket as well as working to educate participants and prevent potential breaches. The Cricket Regulator investigates and prosecutes cases but does not decide on any penalties.The Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) is the independent adjudication body which hears cases, rules on responsibility for breaches of rules and issues penalties to teams and participants.