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“Sometimes as players in sport it’s about moving on to the next thing. But on this occasion I felt that I needed to allow myself to be a little bit disappointed”

Tristan Lavalette15-Mar-20242:22

Bancroft: ‘Sheffield Shield is the pinnacle of Australian domestic cricket’

After being overlooked to succeed David Warner in Australia’s Test team, opener Cameron Bancroft was left feeling “very disappointed”. But instead of trying to shrug off his emotions, Bancroft accepted the hurt and allowed himself time to heal.Despite Bancroft being the leading Sheffield Shield run-scorer over the past couple of seasons, Australia’s hierarchy in January decided on promoting Steven Smith to open and shoehorning Cameron Green at No. 4 following Warner’s retirement. Matthew Renshaw was selected as the reserve batter, consigning Bancroft, 31, to the outer.Australia captain Pat Cummins contacted Bancroft at the time to reassure him that he would remain firmly in Test consideration. The last of his 10 Tests was during the 2019 series against England.Related

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“Naturally I was very disappointed. I would have loved to be in that environment,” Bancroft told reporters in Perth on Friday. “There were some consolations to come out of it…allowing myself to experience what I was experiencing.”Sometimes as players in sport it’s about moving on to the next thing. But on this occasion I felt that I needed to allow myself to be a little bit disappointed and that was actually okay.”Once that digested, you bring yourself back to what’s important and what you need to do.”A refocused Bancroft has played a major role in two-time defending champions Western Australia’s strong late-season form. He scored an unbeaten century on the final day to defy Tasmania in Hobart before producing a gutsy second-innings fifty against Victoria on a tough surface at Junction Oval.Bancroft finished second overall on the run charts in the home-and-away competition with 778 runs at 48.62 and three hundreds. For the second straight season, he faced the most balls. Those stats are made more impressive with Bancroft having had to mostly contend with difficult batting conditions at the WACA this season.Western Australia celebrate clinching a home final•Getty Images”It’s been a challenging back half of the season. We’ve played on some challenging wickets,” Bancroft said. “It’s been nice to fight through some tough periods. I tried to be really consistent.”WA will host Tasmania in the five-day final starting on March 21 at the WACA after a remarkable series of results went their way in a compelling last round. After Tasmania were stunned by lowly South Australia in Hobart, WA rocketed to the top of the ladder and clinched a home final for the third straight year with an impressive victory over Victoria.”We have no idea what has transpired in the last week. You couldn’t script it. The gods were towering over us,” Bancroft said. “It’s huge [a home final]. We know the conditions and what we’re going to face.”There were times this season when we didn’t look like we were going to make the final. We had to dig deep. We feel like we’ve had to work hard.”WA have overcome adversity this season having missed a host of first-choice players due to injuries and international commitments. But their enviable depth of talent, especially with pace-bowling, has been underlined late in the season with fringe quicks Cameron Gannon, Charlie Stobo and Liam Haskett stepping up in place of injured frontliners Jhye Richardson, Lance Morris and Matt Kelly.”At the start of every season, we say it’s not eleven players who will get you to the final, it’s 20-plus who are going to get you there,” Bancroft said. “It’s a big squad mentality and we push that and emphasise that. It’s been a great opportunity for everyone to be part of.”Cementing themselves as the dominant force in Australian domestic cricket, WA are closing in on a hat-trick of Shield titles to go along with their three-peat in the Marsh Cup.WA last completed the feat in the Shield in the late 1980s.”I know for our group, it [Shield] is the pinnacle of Australian domestic cricket,” Bancroft said. “As we saw in the last round, there’s ebbs and flows…all sorts of chaos. I think that’s the beautiful thing about longform cricket.”Having overcome his disappointment from a couple of months ago, Bancroft is hoping to finish another prolific season with the ultimate success. And he’ll be preparing for the final in usual meticulous fashion.”I’ll do the same things I normally do every day…keep that consistency,” he said. “You get to play in finals because you do things well in the season and that doesn’t need to change.”

MatériaMais Notícias

da casino： Durante sorteio realizado na tarde desta terça-feira, na sede da CBF, ficaram definidos os confrontos das oitavas de final daCopa do Brasil. A próxima fase da competição terá clássico regional e duelo de gigantes, e os jogos acontecerão nas semanas dos dias 17 e 31 de maio.

RelacionadasFora de CampoAcréscimo contra o Flamengo vira gancho para Botafogo zoar ‘longo’ discurso de Galvão BuenoFora de Campo02/05/2023Fora de CampoWeb brinca com longo discurso de Galvão Bueno no sorteio da Copa do Brasil: ‘Virou podcast?’Fora de Campo02/05/2023

da prosport bet： As equipes classificadas para as oitavas de final receberam uma premiação de R$ 3,3 milhões. Ao todo, 16 clubes participaram do sorteio. Todos os confrontos serão disputados em dois jogos.

CONFIRA OS CONFRONTOS DAS OITAVAS DE FINAL DA COPA DO BRASIL (Em negrito, os times que iniciam como mandantes)

América-MG x Internacional
Sport x São Paulo
Athletico-PR x Botafogo
Fluminense x Flamengo
Santos x Bahia
Palmeiras x Fortaleza
Atlético-MG x Corinthians
Grêmio x Cruzeiro

The victory was set up by the bowlers who dismissed Zimbabwe for 124 in Chattogram

Mohammad Isam03-May-2024Bangladesh’s bowlers set up a comfortable eight-wicket victory in the first T20 against Zimbabwe by dismissing the visitors for 124 in Chattogram. Rain interrupted the chase twice, but debutant Tanzid Hasan remained unbeaten, steering his team to victory in just 15.2 overs with 67 off 47 balls.Tanzid got into Bangladesh’s T20I side on the back of a strong BPL season and struck two sixes and eight fours in his innings. He was only the second Bangladesh batter – after Junaid Siddique in 2007 – to score a half-century on T20I debut.Zimbabwe’s 124 was their lowest total against Bangladesh – the previous low was 131 in 2015 – but it could have been lower after they slipped to 41 for 7. Taskin Ahmed and the returning Mohammad Saifuddin took three wickets each while Mahedi Hasan bowled economically for his two scalps.

Bennett’s bright start

Zimbabwe’s innings had got off to a bright start. 20-year-old Brian Bennett struck Shoriful Islam for three consecutive boundaries in the third over after senior batter Craig Ervine had fallen in the previous one. Bennett’s first boundary was a cover drive, the second a ramp past third man, and the third a well-timed punch off the back foot through cover. But that bright start was short-lived.

Zimbabwe collapse

Taskin Ahmed’s first over, full of 140 kph-plus deliveries, was an omen for Zimbabwe’s next half hour. Bennett and debutant Joylord Gumbie struggled to connect with most of his deliveries, but the next dismissal was a soft one against Mohammad Saifuddin. Gumbie swivelled awkwardly at a poor delivery down the leg-side and gave Taskin a simple catch at short fine-leg.Bennett was run out first ball of the sixth over, and then Mahedi Hasan dismissed Zimbabwe’s captain Sikandar Raza for a golden duck. Raza’s attempt at a lap sweep resulted in him gloving a catch to slip. Three wickets had fallen off three balls, and then Taskin dismissed Sean Williams and Ryan Burl with the first two deliveries of the seventh over. When Saifuddin got Juke Jongwe out for 2, Zimbabwe had gone from 36 for 1 to 41 for 7 in 17 balls.Blessing Muzarabani and Joylord Gumbie collide and drop Tanzid Hasan•AFP via Getty Images

Madande and Masakadza’s record stand

Clive Madande was Zimbabwe’s last recognised batter and he found support in Wellington Masakadza. They rotated strike regularly as Bangladesh eased the pressure for a little while. The pair added 75 runs, Zimbabwe’s highest partnership for the eighth wicket in T20Is. It nearly broke the all-time record of 80. Madande struck six fours in his 39-ball 43, while Masakadza made his highest T20I score, hitting 34 off 38 balls.

Muzarabani superb start goes sour

Blessing Muzarabani gave Zimbabwe the perfect start to the defence of 124 when he got his second ball to scissor through Litton Das’ forward press. Litton’s white-ball misery continued with scores of 0, 36, 7, 0, 0 and now 1 in 2024.In his next over though, Muzarabani first collided with wicketkeeper Gumbie when Tanzid had skied a catch. The ball was high above the batter himself but Muzarabani wandered close to the advancing Gumbie, before the wicketkeeper dropped the catch as they collided.Later in the over, Bennett dropped a sitter at cover off Tanzid, who was on 4 at the time. In Muzarabani’s next over, Tanzid smashed two sixes and a four through midwicket to exacerbate the bowler’s disappointment.

Tanzid cashes in

It took Tanzid 14 balls to score his first boundary on T20I debut, but once he laid into Muzarabani in the sixth over, the left-hander looked more at ease. After the second rain break, Tanzid struck a couple of fours off Luke Jongwe, and another pair got him close to his fifty.Bangladesh lost Najmul Hossain Shanto in the tenth over for 21, but Tanzid enjoyed some more luck. He got a third life when Gumbie dropped him for a second time on 56. Towhid Hridoy struck Ainsley Ndlovu, who had come on as a concussion sub for Masakadza, for 15 runs in his first over. Hridoy remained not out on 33 off 18 balls, as Tanzid struck the winning runs with 28 balls to spare in the chase.

County struggle amid cost-of-living crisis and abandoned ODI, with prospect of ground sale on agenda

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Apr-2024Gloucestershire’s viability as a first-class county has been cast into renewed doubt after the club reported a loss of £1.19 million in their annual accounts, published on Monday, which is more than twice the shortfall of £570,000 that they accrued in 2022-23.In her report, Gloucestershire’s Treasurer Rebecca Watkin insisted that the club’s outlook for 2024 and 2025 was more positive, but blamed the current situation on the cost-of-living crisis that has raised the club’s day-to-day running costs, allied to the washed-out ODI between England and Ireland in September, which would ordinarily have been a vital source of revenue, given the club’s non-Test and Hundred-hosting status.”This has been a challenging year financially for a number of reasons and there is no doubt it is disappointing to be reporting a second consecutive financial deficit,” Watkin wrote. “Gloucestershire has experienced a tumultuous couple of years both on and off the field but despite that, we remain committed to pushing for success on the field with inspiring, competitive cricket, and will ensure all that can be done is done to return improved financial results in the years to come.”In December, Gloucestershire’s board had floated the possibility of selling up the club’s historic Nevil Road ground, which has been their home since WG Grace assisted with its purchase in 1889 and could now be worth between £25 and £40 million, and moving to a new out-of-town venue near the junction of the M4 and M5.That prospect could be one step closer now, following an independent audit by chartered accountants, Saffery LLP, which revealed net liabilities of £5,019,000, leaving Gloucestershire in breach of its banking covenants and casting “significant doubt on the Club’s ability to continue as a going concern”.A number of contributory factors were cited in the accounts, including a £67,000 increase in energy bills across four months, and an extra £43,000 in interest-rate payments. The annual £4 million funding that the club receives from the ECB is, Watkin added in her report, effectively worth around £750,000 less in real terms compared to four years ago, while other ventures – including a Ministry of Sound dance party held at the ground in July – “did not deliver the financial returns predicted”.In his own report, David Jones, the club chair, described the year as a “rollercoaster”, with Gloucestershire’s rock-bottom finish in the 2023 County Championship compounding their off-field struggles. However, with the bidding process now underway for the Women’s World Cup in 2026, he insisted the club remained well placed to ensure Bristol retained its status as a host city for such marquee events.On the prospect of the ground relocation, Jones reiterated the club’s need to remain “open-minded” in spite of the weight of history at the Nevil Ground, adding that the opportunity to relocate to a new, purpose-built and larger site would allow Gloucestershire to “flourish for future generations”.A formal update on the relocation plans are anticipated in May or June, following further discussions at the club’s AGM on April 29.

Chelsea have a lot of work to do this summer.

There’s no question Stamford Bridge has enjoyed progress under Enzo Maresca’s tactical guidance this season, but the last few months have exposed holes in the Blues squad.

This is a young team. Todd Boehly’s scattergun spending approach hasn’t quite been streamlined yet but there have been signs of refined focus over the past year.

The issue is that Cole Palmer is currently out of sorts, and Chelsea’s frontline is suffering as a result.

The recruitment team are going to be called into play, no doubt, but Chelsea need to rid the team of several pieces of deadwood too.

Who Chelsea need to sell this summer

Sadly, it hasn’t worked out. In 2023, Chelsea signed Christopher Nkunku from RB Leipzig in a deal worth £52m, but injuries and a struggle to identify his best position have left the Frenchman with only six starts and three goals in the Premier League this term.

Bayern Munich were reportedly interested in completing a move in January, but it didn’t come to fruition. Nkunku may well be sold at the end of the season, with Maresca backed to put more of his own flair on the team.

Maresca named Ben Chilwell and Carney Chukwuemeka to be among the most probable permanent departures before the winter market. Chilwell did leave, but only on loan to Crystal Palace. Expect both to be gone next term.

Then of course, the goalkeeping department requires something of an overhaul, with both Robert Sanchez and Filip Jorgensen enduring something of an error-stricken crisis this season.

Kepa Arrizabalaga is producing solid stuff out on loan with Bournemouth, but reports from February have suggested Chelsea have compiled a four-man shortlist ahead of the off-season and will act.

It’s clear the Blues need a new centre-forward to jockey with Nicolas Jackson. Nkunku might be off, while Joao Felix has only scored once in eight games on loan at Milan, and after failing to hit the ground running in London, it’s unlikely he will feature prominently next year.

Truthfully, this is a squad in transition and will need more facework if the loftiest heights are to be reached. There’s a player above all the aforementioned who must be cut from the books this summer, and like Felix, he’s not even a part of Maresca’s set-up right now.

Not just Nkunku: Chelsea's forgotten man is on borrowed time

Nkunku has flattered to deceive, sure, but he’s still got the potential to spark his career back to life at the highest level, perhaps back in the Bundesliga with Bayern.

Chalkboard

However, the same can’t be said for Raheem Sterling, whose regression over the past several years has reached its nadir at the Emirates with Arsenal.

Chelsea signed him from Manchester City in a deal worth £47.5m in the summer of 2022, and though Sterling impressed in flashes, Maresca’s arrival spelt the end of his west London journey.

Last season, under Mauricio Pochettino, Sterling served an important role, indeed scoring eight times from only 22 starts in the Premier League. But the cracks were starting to show, the wear and tear from an unrelenting career beginning to catch up with him.

He was severed from the first-team reckoning, with the club’s Italian head coach making it clear he wanted a different profile of winger. Arsenal handed him a lifeline, bringing him in on loan late in the day on summer’s transfer deadline day. You’re about to see the best of me, he cried. That hasn’t been the case.

It’s not worked out at Arsenal, with his failure to nail down a starting berth in spite of the Gunners’ injury crisis rather damning.

Reporter Ed Aarons has noted that he’s “struggling” and it’s difficult to see a positive way out for Sterling at either London club.

Limited to just six starts across the Premier League and Champions League, the five-time league winner has registered just one assist. He hasn’t scored. Moreover, Sterling is averaging only 1.5 duels and 0.7 dribbles per game in the top flight, underscoring his athletic depletion.

Raheem Sterling – Last 8 Seasons (PL)
Season	Club	Apps	Goals	Assists
24/25	Arsenal	12	0	1
23/24	Chelsea	31	8	4
22/23	Chelsea	28	6	3
21/22	Man City	30	13	5
20/21	Man City	31	10	7
19/20	Man City	33	20	1
18/19	Man City	34	17	9
17/18	Man City	33	18	11
Stats via Transfermarkt

His decline has been a gradual thing. Growth and regression are not linear in football, and Sterling has played an almighty amount of football even at 30 years old.

Indeed, having played 391 Premier League matches, Sterling is the fourth-highest active appearance holder in the division, behind James Milner, Ashley Young and James Ward-Prowse.

He will return to Chelsea at the end of the season and is contracted until 2027. His value is plummeting – Transfermarkt record the England international is presently worth just £19m – but given he pockets £350k per week, he must be sold for the greater good of the club.

If Nkunku is sold this summer, Chelsea will need to invest in more depth and quality across the frontline, doubly so if Sterling is freed from the books.

However, such things need to happen. Chelsea are at a critical juncture and must act with incision – luckily, say one thing for Boehly, he’s never been without ambition.

£100m star in the making: Chelsea have struck gold on "incredible" signing

This Chelsea talent is beginning to show the club what he can do for Enzo Maresca.

1

By
Angus Sinclair

Mar 2, 2025

As the summer transfer window approaches, Atletico Madrid have already reportedly reached a verbal agreement with a Manchester United star who could now leave in a deal worth £42m.

Man Utd transfer news

In what has been a trend spanning over 10 years, Manchester United are once again in need of a major overhaul under a new manager.

This time, it’s Ruben Amorim who needs to welcome several fresh faces if he is to stamp his mark on the struggling side that Erik ten Hag left behind. However, unlike in previous tenures, the Red Devils are not in a position to splash the cash so easily.

As INEOS continue their cost-cutting measures, which have not come without controversy, the first thing they must do when the summer arrives is sell any players Amorim does not deem fit to feature in his strongest side – and that could see one star man depart.

According to reports in Spain, Atletico Madrid have now reached a verbal agreement with Alejandro Garnacho and could complete a summer deal worth €50m (£42m).

Man Utd open talks to sign £40m star outscoring Zirkzee & Hojlund combined

He’d be an instant upgrade…

ByTom Cunningham Mar 9, 2025

The Argentinian winger looked destined to follow in Marcus Rashford’s footsteps by departing in the January transfer window amid links to the likes of Chelsea, but eventually stayed put and has since crept back into Amorim’s side.

Nonetheless, he could still decide to leave a sinking ship and a manager whose system simply does not accommodate wingers when the summer arrives. United, meanwhile, could commence a summer of sales by showing Garnacho the door.

"Brave" Garnacho needs Man Utd exit

There was once a time when leaving Old Trafford seemed an absurd idea, but those days are long gone. Recent history instead tells a damning story of how players can benefit from leaving Manchester United – whether it’s been Alexis Sanchez, Romelu Lukaku or more recently, Aaron Wan-Bissaka. Now, Garnacho can become the latest to steal the headlines away from a club drowning in failure.

Under Ten Hag, the young winger looked destined to become the star of the team, having earned regular praise from the Dutchman, who told reporters: “I love to work with Garnacho.

“He’s a player who needs a challenge, he likes a challenge, he is very brave, he’s very confident, our job is to push him to high levels. He has high potential and now we have to get the potential out, therefore you have to work day by day.”

Now, under Amorim, he has been surplus to requirements at times, in what has been the harshest reality check possible for a player who has strayed from a path towards Old Trafford greatness.

Like others in the past, Garnacho should take hold of an opportunity to leave Manchester United behind this summer.

da lvbet： Well, that was not the sort of performance Tottenham Hotspur fans would have been hoping for to kickstart their efforts in the Europa League knockout rounds.

da cassino online： Instead of taking the game to their hosts, Ange Postecoglou’s side were timid, predictable and looked bereft of ideas right up to the last few minutes of the game.

If anything, AZ Alkmaar will likely be annoyed that they aren’t taking a more considerable lead with them to North London next week.

There were lacklustre displays all over the pitch for the Lilywhites, but two players stood out for the wrong reasons, one of them being Mathys Tel.

Tels's peformance vs Alkmaar

When Spurs announced the signing of Tel on loan early last month, there was a lot of understandable excitement from fans, but apart from a goal against Aston Villa in the FA Cup, he’s not really done much of anything since joining the club.

Unfortunately, it was much of the same against AZ tonight, as while he had a few chances to make something happen, he was practically anonymous the entire time he was on the pitch.

In fact, the young Frenchman was so ineffective up top that Postecoglu decided he had to take him off at half-time, put Wilson Odobert out wide and move Son Heung-min into the middle, who wasn’t much better.

Unsurprisingly, the 19-year-old loanee did not impress the watching press, as football.london’s Alasdair Gold awarded him just a 3/10 match rating at full-time.

It might sound harsh, but it’s an opinion more than backed up by his statistics, as in 45 minutes of action, he amassed a combined expected goals and assists figure of 0.01, failed to take a single shot, failed in 50% of his dribbles, took just 14 touches and lost 50% of his ground duels.

Tel’s game in numbers

Minutes

45′

Expected Goals

0.00

Goals

0

Expected Assists

0.01

Assists

0

Shots on Target

0

Dribbles (Successful)

2 (1)

Duels (Won)

4 (2)

Touches

14

All Stats via Sofascore

In all, it was the right decision by Postecoglou to take him off at half-time, but there was another attacker who was just as poor and somehow played the entire game.

The Spurs star just as bad as Tel

Brennan Johnson started the game off the right, and while he’s been quite effective at points this season, he certainly was not tonight.

Just like his younger teammate, the Welsh international was practically anonymous for large parts of the match, and then when he did find himself in dangerous areas or with the chance to make something happen, he’d wait too long or make the wrong choice.

Gold was equally disappointed with the 23-year-old’s display, giving him a 3/10 match rating and highlighting that as well as offering ‘very little going forward’, he also ‘seemed to stop marking Parrott for the corner that led to Bergvall’s own goal.’

Again, while it might sound overly harsh considering he didn’t score the own goal and there weren’t any stand-out misses, the former Nottingham Forest ace’s statistics more than back up Gold’s damning summary of his performance.

In 94 minutes, he amassed a combined expected goal and assists figure of just 0.20, failed to have a single shot on target, failed in four of five attempted dribbles, took 46 touches but played just one key pass, failed in 100% of his crosses and long balls, lost 60% of his duels, lost the ball 13 times and committed a foul.

Johnson’s game in numbers

Minutes

94′

Expected Goals

0.02

Goals

0

Expected Assists

0.18

Assists

0

Shots on Target

0

Dribbles (Successful)

5 (1)

Touches

46

Key Passes

1

Crosses (Accurate)

2 (0)

Long Balls (Accurate)

1 (0)

Duels (Won)

10 (4)

Lost Possession

13

Fouls

1

All Stats via Sofascore

Ultimately, it was a dismally poor showing from a player capable of so much more, and just like Tel, Johnson should have been hooked early into the second half at the very latest.

Related Playing like Nico Williams: Spurs have "electric" Werner upgrade out on loan

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Posts 2 ByJack Salveson Holmes Mar 6, 2025

Klinsmann emphasized that Pochettino needs time to familiarize himself with US soccer landscape to get the best out of team

• Klinsmann acknowledges Pochettino needs adjustment period
• Says that US Soccer is a complicated landscape to navigate
• Believes Argentine can inspire necessary drive before 2026

• Getty Images Sport
  

  WHAT HAPPENED

  USMNT coach Mauricio Pochettino has faced some criticism after the team dropped two matches in the recent CONCACAF Nation's League, but Jürgen Klinsmann believes the Argentine will find success with the U.S. squad ahead of the 2026 World Cup.

  The former USMNT head coach, who held the role between 2011 and 2016, said Pochettino needs time to adjust.

  “I think it’s a difficult learning curve for Mauricio and his entire staff,” Klinsmann said on . “Because obviously the landscape in the United States is so, so different to anything you find in Europe or what he would have found in South America or Argentina. So what he’s growing through is just learning by day, every day he gets more information, he gets more knowledge about his players, he gets more knowledge about how soccer really functions in this country.

  “He will take it all in and then kind of focus the closer we get to the World Cup, he’ll focus more and more on what’s important and that’s basically his relationship with all the players and his team in order to create a very special energy and drive towards the World Cup.”

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• WHAT JURGEN KLINSMANN SAID

  Klinsmann said that Pochettino has a "special team" with players featuring at the highest levels of the sport.

  “He knows he has a special team, he knows he has players now that are able to compete at the highest level because they play for Champions League teams in Europe, which is unbelievable really, where our players are today," Klinsmann said. "It is now kind of day by day learning and understanding, you know, the political landscape and all the parts of it, there are so many different parts floating around US Soccer."

  “In the beginning, it’s very difficult to comprehend, but once you get closer to a tournament, all that matters is his relationship with the players and the people that work close with the national team. To give them the belief and the drive and all those little pieces of knowledge that he has undoubtably because he’s a very successful coach, in the hope, for all of us, to make it a very successful World Cup for the U.S. national team.”

• THE BIGGER PICTURE

  Following the USMNT's fourth-place finish at the CONCACAF Nations League, some former U.S. players have been critical of the team's approach and preparation.

• Getty Images Sport
  

  WHAT’S NEXT?

  The USMNT will regroup ahead of the 2025 Gold Cup, which begins on June 14, with a pair of friendlies before that.

Ben Foakes’ maiden List A hundred could not prevent Leicestershire Foxes from kicking off their Metro Bank One-Day Cup Group A campaign with an impressive five-wicket victory against Surrey at the Kia Oval. It was their highest winning total when chasing in all one-day cricket.Louis Kimber smashed five sixes in a brutal 89 not out off 62 balls and Wiaan Mulder struck three of his own in a 53-ball 67 not out as Leicestershire won with a comfortable 7.4 overs to spare at 329 for 5. With only two players lost to the Hundred, compared to Surrey’s 13, the Foxes look a good outside bet for this year’s 50-over competition.Foakes hit two sixes and eight fours in 106 from 107 balls while Ben Geddes sprinted to 67 off just 39 balls in the closing overs of Surrey’s 325 all out, in which seamer Tom Scriven finished with a one-day best of 5 for 66.But Mulder and Kimber’s unbroken stand of 146 in 18.1 overs, a Foxes List A sixth-wicket record against Surrey, swept Leicestershire home after Peter Handscomb’s 54-ball 57 and an excellent 46 from 37 balls by Lewis Hill had helped to propel them to 186 for 5 at the halfway stage of their reply.Foakes was unable to keep wicket after suffering a knee niggle when batting and Josh Blake, substituting for him behind the stumps, caught Hill off a gloved sweep at Cameron Steel.Rishi Patel and Sol Budinger got the Foxes off to a fast start before both were caught at mid-on, for 16 and 33, off Matt Dunn and Conor McKerr respectively.Ben Foakes scored his maiden List A hundred•Getty Images

Hill and Handscomb added 79 in ten overs for the third wicket but Colin Ackermann was needlessly run out for 10, sent back after turning for a third run that was never there, and Handscomb cut a near-wide from legspinner Steel to point.Mulder, however, was soon pulling Steel for six to bring up Leicestershire’s 200 in the 27th over, punching an extra cover four and swinging a legside six off McKerr. Kimber, meanwhile, pulled McKerr for six, off drove Dan Moriarty for another maximum and virtually settled matters by taking 21 from the 36th over, bowled by Dunn, with three sixes hooked and pulled over the longer boundary.Surrey’s innings, which stuttered at first after Leicestershire had chosen to bowl, was built around Foakes’ typically elegant effort and rounded off by a burst of spectacular hitting by Geddes, the promising 22-year-old batsman in at No. 7 with orders to shepherd the tail to a respectable total.Steel, too, played his part with a quickfire 40-ball 50 that included leg-side sixes off Ackermann and Josh Hull, a 6ft 7in teenage left-arm quick making his List A debut. Steel, who came in with Surrey in a hint of bother at 129 for 4 in the 23rd over, helped Foakes to add 95 in 14 overs for the fifth wicket.Foakes had cruised to fifty from 55 balls, having initially stabilised the innings in a partnership worth 66 with Dom Sibley, who had seen fellow opener Ryan Patel edge low to slip on 17 and skipper Rory Burns depart looking distinctly disgruntled at being adjudged caught behind for 5 from a fine ball from Chris Wright that pitched on leg stump and jagged across him.Sibley’s 34 from 40 balls ended when he nicked a flat-footed drive at Hull to the keeper and Jordan Clark hoisted Scriven for six before his cameo of 19 was cut short by an attempted back-foot force against the same bowler that he dragged down into his stumps.Foakes began to accelerate when he clubbed Mulder’s medium pace high over the short boundary on the Harleyford Road side and he then earned himself another six by just clearing deep midwicket with a pull off Hull, followed by a rasping square cut for four two balls later. He was soon past his previous List A best of 92 while Steel swung Ackermann’s offbreaks over the long boundary and collected a further maximum with a whiplash pull off Hull.Steel fell to a low catch, confirmed after an umpires’ discussion and taken at the second attempt by Patel at mid-on as he dived forward to scoop up a miscue off Scriven, leaving Foakes to complete his hundred in the 39th over but then top-edged a pull at the same bowler high into the air for keeper Handscomb to claim.Geddes began by striking Scriven way over the long-on rope but saw the innings threaten to peter out after McKerr was well caught on the boundary for a handy 13, Yousef Majid bowled for 2 and Moriarty caught at deep mid-on for a five-ball duck.The response from Geddes was to hit three sixes from the first four balls of the final over, over extra cover, straight and to square cover before he was caught from the fifth ball attempting a repeat of his last scoring shot.

Hindsight is a terrible tease, but where might this series be now had Mark Wood been fit to play the first Test at Edgbaston? To judge by his ferocious pad-thumper to a motionless Pat Cummins in the afternoon session, Australia’s captain probably wouldn’t have been quite so composed in that fraught run-chase, especially against a bowler with a proven ability to transcend the conditions on flat decks – see Wood’s priceless performance on the final day at Multan for recent evidence.But he’s here now, all right, and after claiming his fourth five-wicket haul and his first on home soil, a sensational 5 for 34 in 11.4 overs, Wood was champing at the bit to make up for lost time in England’s hour of Ashes need.”I’m delighted,” Wood told Sky Sports at the close. “Obviously I haven’t played a Test match in a while, but to be able to come back fairly fresh and produce that was pretty special.”However, Wood was also keen to prove that he’s learnt a few new tricks since he was last unleashed in a home Test, against India at Lord’s almost two years ago. For pace may be pace (yaar) when you’re playing on a road in Pakistan, but on one of the most helpful home surfaces that he’s ever been unleashed on, Wood had a mission to ensure that his eye-watering speed was translated into wicket-taking success.”I was really happy that I could show in home conditions that I can bowl as well,” he said. “Movement, that’s what’s deadly I think. If you just bowl fast, these top players are just used to that. They face dog-stick guys [throwing the ball] off 17 yards, so they’re used to facing quick bowling. So I the thing that helped today was the movement really.”For all that his day’s work was done in the blink of an eye (or three-and-a-bit, to be exact – four precisely measured bursts of four, two, three and 2.4 overs, spread evenly across the innings) Wood’s tactics were more carefully calibrated than his raw speed might suggest, as he explained in front of the Sky Sports replay screen at the close.”In general the wicket felt to me like, when you went up there, it came onto the bat, it slid on,” he said, referencing how David Warner had leant on Stuart Broad’s first ball of the match and pinged it for four down the ground.Mark Wood unleashed extreme speed in his first outing of this summer’s Ashes•Getty Images

“So it was about trying to hold the good length to keep [the batter] on the crease and then I thought, ‘right, this is the one I’m going to try and get the wicket’, push it right up there with a bit of swing, and luckily it paid off.”No wicket was more spectacular in that regard than his first, a stunning stump-wrecker to Usman Khawaja that was clocked at 94.6mph – and given Khawaja’s prior record in this series, 300 runs from almost 20 hours of application across the first two Tests, no wicket was more essential to England’s cause, either.”We were discussing it as a bowling group out there,” Wood said. “At Headingley you think, ‘full, full, full’, but then you can get drawn in, so it’s just that balance of when to attack the stumps and when to hold it in. It was more a case of bashing the top of the stumps on that nicking length, and then the odd one full rather than being full all the time.”A still image of Wood’s point of release during that spell emphasised the extraordinary physical toil his bowling puts on his body, but also the remarkable rewards when his action is perfectly aligned, with a braced front knee, and fully loaded torso, compared to a fractionally buckled load-up for his second spell, when his speeds intermittently dipped below 90mph.”When I’m at full biff, it feels like all my body’s going towards the batsman. It looks like an awful position, but it’s almost like a catapult sling that, when you let it go, all the chinks in the chain fizz the ball out.”But it was the subtlety that Wood brought to his performance that pleased him the most – especially knowing that, in the past, he probably wouldn’t have been given first dibs on such a pitch.Related

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“I’m usually on the flat ones, to be fair, and my record is much better away from home,” he said, citing a record of 49 wickets at 24.18 overseas, compared to 35 at 40.71 prior to today, both from 13 Tests.”On wickets like today, when the ball moves around, you’re automatically thinking Anderson, Broad, Robinson, Woakes,” he added. “They are your top guys who can trouble people in these conditions.”For me, being able to move the ball today, it’s really helped me, because that’s not something that I’ve always done to be, to be brutally honest. I’ve tried to work hard behind the scenes on the wobble-seam, through speaking to the other guys and the bowling coaches.”It’s something I’m trying to get better at. I’m 33, but I’m still trying to get better and better, even though it’s a slow progress. It doesn’t just happen overnight.”But I like bowling away from home, because it brings in reverse-swing. And the bouncer attack on flat pitches, I feel really that suits me, because they sometimes skid through and it’s hard to play especially with the field.”The short ball at Headingley, however, proved a trickier weapon to get right, particularly when the WACA-born-and-bred Mitchell Marsh was climbing into his sensational run-a-ball counterattack in the afternoon session.”If you bowled it too short, it looped over the keeper, and then if you didn’t get short enough, it’s in that Australian sweet spot, where they play it really well,” Wood said. “It’s about that happy medium you got to find.”Mitch Marsh played fantastically well. He was difficult to bowl at in that period, when the ball went from having that zip off the wicket, and all of a sudden, it looked very different when he was in. But of course, when a new batter came in, it was tough again.”I’ve had a good day. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, I’ve got to back it up. This is a must-win game, and we’ve got to back it up in the second innings. But the outfield is rapid and rock hard. We’re gonna score quickly if the lads can get in tomorrow.”