His 206 runs during the Bangladesh series take him past Virat Kohli, Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma, among others

ESPNcricinfo staff17-May-2023Harry Tector has moved up to a career-best No. 7 spot, which is also the best for an Ireland batter, in the latest ICC men’s ODI batting rankings following his 206 runs during the three-match series against Bangladesh.Tector registered scores of 21*, 140 and 45 across three ODIs. While it wasn’t enough to prevent a 2-0 loss for Ireland, it saw him gain 72 rating points and take his tally to 722, which is also the most for an Ireland men’s batter. The previous best for them was Paul Stirling’s 697 in June 2021.Tector’s performance took him past Virat Kohli, Quinton de Kock and Rohit Sharma, among others, who are currently at No. 8, 9 and 10 respectively on the table. Babar Azam continues to be the top-ranked ODI batter with 886 rating points .

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Since 2022, he has smashed 769 runs in 13 innings – including four centuries and as many half-centuries – at an average of 76.90 and a strike rate of 90.89. The next best tally for Ireland in this period is Paul Stirling’s 352 from 12 innings. Tector will get a chance to further improve his ranking when Ireland take part in the World Cup Qualifier in Zimbabwe in June.Tector’s team-mate Mark Adair also made giant strides in the latest update, jumping 30 spots up to No. 31 on the bowlers’ list and 33 spots up to No. 33 on the allrounders’ list. Adair took seven wickets, and scored 40 runs from two innings, during the Bangladesh series.

Hosts were in dire straits at 53 for 4 in response to Surrey’s 433 all out built on Jamie Smith’s first-day ton

ECB Reporters Network20-Jul-2023Middlesex 179 for 5 (Simpson 55*, Holden 55) trail Surrey 433 (Smith 138, Burns 79, Clark 78, Helm 6-110) by 254 runs John Simpson and Max Holden shared a century stand to give Middlesex hope of saving the follow-on against reigning champions Surrey on day two at Lord’s.The hosts, with only two batting bonus points all season were in dire straits at 53 for 4 in response to the visitors’ 433 all out, but former England U19 Holden and redoubtable wicket-keeper Simpson added 116 for the fifth wicket.Holden fell shortly before the close, but a defiant Simpson will take guard on day three 55 not out with Middlesex 179 for 5, Sean Abbot taking two of the wickets.Earlier Surrey passed 400 with day-one centurion Jamie Smith finishing on 138 and Jordan Clark 78, Tom Helm completing a career-best 6-110 for the hosts.Stand-in skipper Mark Stoneman briefly suggested a positive response to Surrey’s substantial first-innings total, creaming two early off drives through the covers, but it proved a false dawn as with only 11 against his name he feathered a good one from Clark through to wicketkeeper Ben Foakes.It would be the ‘Brown Hats’ only success for some while, but a combination of tight seam bowling and a lack of intent from Pieter Malan and Sam Robson – the latter for some reason batting at three – meant the hosts crawled along at two runs per over.Perhaps that explains the rash cross-bat swish by South African Malan to an innocuous ball from Jamie Overton which took the under-edge, giving Foakes a second comfortable catch.As too often this season, the departure of one Middlesex batter led to three falling for the addition of 10 runs in 39 balls.Robson, a centurion last week at Merchant Taylors’ was undone by one from Sean Abbott which came back into him up the slope and went off the inside edge onto the stumps via the thigh pad.A torturous period of the afternoon for the hosts concluded with Jack Davies, in the side for the injured Stephen Eskinazi, taking 18 balls to get off the mark only to then fence at one from Tom Lawes, sending it into the hands of Dom Sibley at slip.The bell summoning the players back after tea sounded like a death knell for the beleaguered home side, but to their credit Holden and Simpson showed some intestinal fortitude.Holden, displayed some of the T20 form which earned a wildcard pick from the Manchester Originals for the upcoming Hundred, driving well off front and back foot, while Simpson played one delightful cut and acquired an all-run four courtesy of an overthrow.Overton tried some chin music, but Holden’s sixth four through third man took him to his second Championship half century of the season from 93 balls before Simpson too found the fence to raise the century stand.Simpson’s own half-century came in the grand manner with a six into the Mound Stand, but just as it looked as if Middlesex would reach the sanctity of stumps without further loss, Abbott found the edge of Holden’s bat and a diving Sibley did the rest.Surrey had resumed on 312 for 5, and save for a six over square leg by Clark off Ryan Higgins, made steady, unspectacular progress before Smith was castled by Helm from one which came back through the gate.Clark eased his way to a 91-ball 50 though he was later unsettled, not to say frustrated by Ethan Bamber beating him outside the off stump with five successive deliveries. The young seamer, who had somehow gone wicketless on day one, finally got reward when Abbott hoisted him into the hands of Malan at deep square.Clark’s fine effort ended when Tim Murtagh got one to bounce and take the edge which flew to Robson at slip and while a few lusty blows from Overton delayed the lunch interval, Helm cleaned up the tail for his first ever six-for in Championship cricket.

Glamorgan make early running but lower-order turn tables from 110 for 6

ECB Reporters Network03-Sep-2023Club Captain Brett D’Oliveira helped inspire a Worcestershire comeback on his return from injury for the LV=Insurance County Championship top-three encounter with Glamorgan at New Road.D’Oliveira, side-lined for three weeks with a dislocated shoulder, came to the wicket with Worcestershire 103 for 5 after they had been put into bat with Jamie McIlroy picking up three wickets.A mixture of probing and accurate bowling but also some undistinguished shots had put Glamorgan in command until D’Oliveira redressed the balance of the day.He top-scored with 74 not out and was given excellent support by Logan van Beek and on loan Essex all-rounder Ben Allison during stands of 101 and 64.D’Oliveira has a liking for playing against Glamorgan, having scored three Championship hundreds, including a career best 202 not out, and his best bowling figures of 7 for 92.Earlier, Gareth Roderick and Adam Hose had led a partial recovery in challenging conditions during the morning session from 33 for 3.Worcestershire were able to secure two batting bonus points before being dismissed shortly before the close and then Glamorgan openers Ed Byrom and nightwatchman James Harris survived two overs.A see-saw day ended with honours even with McIlroy returning 3 for 41 and Harris 3 for 74.Of concern to Glamorgan will be what appeared to be a hamstring injury suffered by Timm van Gugten during his 17th over which had to be completed by James Harris.Allison was brought in after injuries to Matthew Waite and Adam Finch led to a search for a temporary replacement.Spinner Ben Kellaway made his first-class bow for Glamorgan who went into the game in third place and 14 points adrift of their opponents.Glamorgan skipper Kiran Carlson opted to bowl first and the new-ball pair of van der Gugten and McIlroy quickly made inroads in a pitch offering enough assistance to encourage the seamers.Jake Libby has experienced a prolific summer with more than 900 Championship runs but the opener tried to force van der Gugten off the back foot and was caught behind.Azhar Ali then gave his wicket away when he clipped McIlroy straight to midwicket.Jack Haynes, playing his first senior game for six weeks after injury, was undone by a fine delivery from Harris which nipped away and was caught behind.Roderick passed 600 runs for the summer but survived a low chance to second slip on 23 off former Worcestershire Academy player Zain Ul Hassan.He battled away in typically resolute fashion through to lunch with Hose who had returned to the side after his spell with Northern Superchargers in The Hundred.But there was another clatter of wickets on the resumption.Roderick (43) added only a single before he was lbw after pushing forward to Harris in the third over of the afternoon session.Kashif Ali, the leading six-hitter in the Metro Bank One Day Cup with 21 maximums, replicated Azhar Ali in picking out mid wicket off McIlroy.Hose had batted impressively in mixing defence with aggression but on 43 tried to cut a widish delivery from McIlroy and only found first slip.D’Oliveira and van Beek joined forces and redressed the balance during an aggressive stand.The latter had attracted head-lines in June for smashing 30 for the Netherlands off a Super Over from his close friend Jason Holder in a ICC World Cup qualifier against the West Indies in Zimbabwe.Van Beek, who also played for Worcestershire in the Metro Bank One Day Cup, mixed some powerful hitting with watchful defence while D’Oliveira batted with typical fluency.A cover-drive off Kellaway for his 10th four enabled van Beek to complete a 73-ball half century and also earn Worcestershire their first batting point.The partnership was broken shortly after tea when van Beek (53) attempted to drive ul Hassan and was caught and bowled low down.But D’Oliveira completed his own fifty from 87 deliveries, also at Kellaway’s expense with a late cut for his seventh boundary, and Allison gave him good support.They added 64 in 18 overs before Allison (37) aimed a drive at Harris and was bowled via the inside edge.Ul Hassan then wrapped up the innings by dismissing Joe Leach and Dillon Pennington cheaply to leave D’Oliveira undefeated with his 139-ball innings containing seven boundaries.

The opener made 131 but no one else reached 20 for Australia A

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Sep-2023New Zealand A made it back-to-back victories in the four-day series despite a defiant century from Australia A opener Caleb Jewell on the final day of the pink-ball game in Mackay.Jewell made a brilliant 131 before he was last-man out, but the next-highest score in the chase was 19 as the home side struggled to combat the New Zealand A pace attack on tricky conditions.Over the course of four A-team first-class matches played between the teams in April and this series, New Zealand A have won three of them with the other drawn.Having been set 302, following Tom Bruce’s unbeaten century, Australia A made a solid start during an overcast first session until Cameron Bancroft was caught at second slip. They had then reached 80 for 1 when, moments before rain stopped play, Tim Ward was caught behind.When play resumed, captain Nathan McSweeney edged to slip against the impressive William O’Rourke. Campbell Kellaway survived a huge appeal for caught behind only to top edge to square leg moments later, but Jewell continued to score freely as he dominated the innings.He went to a 120-ball century, his fifth in first-class cricket, and while he was at the crease Australia A had a good chance of chasing down the runs. However, he could not find anyone to stay with him long enough.Josh Philippe, who made a superb hundred in the first innings, drove to mid-off and Mitchell Perry was brilliantly caught at backward point by Adithya Askok.Nathan McAndrew did not appear convinced by his caught-behind decision and there was too much left for the bowlers to do. An injured Ben Dwarshuis came out at No. 11 but did not have to face a ball with Jewell clubbing to deep square leg.The teams now meet in three one-day games on September 10, 13 and 15.

Sparks’ hopes evaporate in steep chase as Davidson-Richards, McDonald-Gay share six

ECB Reporters Network16-Sep-2023South East Stars secured qualification in the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Trophy in the most emphatic style with a 152-run victory over Central Sparks in a winner-takes-all clash at Edgbaston.Stars captain Bryony Smith led from the front with a blistering 97 from 81 balls, with ten fours, three sixes, and supported by Kira Chathli (61 off 92) powered her team to a hefty 283 for 7. Spinners Hannah Baker (2 for 46) and Georgia Davis (2 for 47) imposed some mid-innings control for Sparks.Sparks would have qualified themselves if they had chased down the target but their reply never took flight. Only Maddy Green, with 39 off 48 balls, passed 20 against a disciplined attack led by Alice Davidson-Richards and Ryana MacDonald-Gay, who both claimed three-fors.Put in, Stars lost an early wicket when Alexa Stonehouse skied a slog at Emily Arlott, but it was an isolated success with the new ball for the bowlers as Chathli and Smith added 125 in 21 overs for the second wicket.After Chathli chipped Baker to mid-off and Smith fell three short of a deserved century when she top-edged Davis to midwicket, the innings lost momentum in the middle before a late fillip came from Chloe Hill (34 off 24) and Maddie Blinkhorn-Jones. They batted intelligently to add 57 in 48 balls for the eighth wicket to lift the total from around par to imposing.Under some scoreboard pressure, Sparks needed a strong platform but lost both openers in three balls from McDonald-Gay. Eve Jones was strangled down the leg side and then Bethan Ellis edged a lovely outswinger to wicketkeeper Chathli.Green and Abi Freeborn counterattacked with brief success to take the score to 50 in ten overs but the departure of Freeborn, lbw to Paige Scholfield, triggered a collapse. Davidson-Richards removed Ami Campbell, caught at deep midwicket, and Katie George who top-edged a scoop and was well caught by Chathli running back towards fine leg.When Green, having hit six fours, was bowled by Danielle Gregory, it was 102 for 7. Sparks needed something miraculous from their tail but Stars closed the game out without alarms.

The stand-in head coach also explained the thinking about omitting Jason Behrendorff

Hemant Brar27-Nov-2023Andre Borovec, Australia’s stand-in head coach, rued losing too many wickets in the first ten overs after his side’s 44-run defeat in the second T20I in Thiruvananthapuram. But at the same time, he lauded the intent shown by the batters throughout the chase.Batting first, India scored a mammoth 235 for 4. In response, Australia were on 104 after ten overs but had lost four wickets. Marcus Stoinis and Tim David kept the fight on by adding 81 off just 38 balls for the fifth wicket, but Australia eventually fell short and are now trailing 2-0 in the five-match series.”It’s just that we were behind a couple more wickets at the halfway mark there, four to one,” Borovec said. “It’s always ifs, buts and maybes, isn’t it? But we just fell behind the game a little bit. We knew we probably didn’t have the breathing space that India had going into those last ten overs.Related

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“One of the key pillars of our game is intent. And you couldn’t fault that throughout the innings. Will there be mistakes made? Of course. But if we’re making mistakes with good intent, good decisions, good plans, and if the execution doesn’t go quite right, well, we’re quite happy to accept that.”Another difference was that India scored 20 or more in an over on four occasions. Australia did so on two. Borovec acknowledged that the bowlers found it difficult to close out the over after they had conceded boundaries on the first two balls.”The first two balls in an over can be quite important in T20 cricket,” he said. “If you’re conceding boundaries on those two balls, it can be difficult to get back. You’ve got less resources at your disposal as you’ve shown a couple of deliveries… if you’ve bowled a bouncer.”What we saw tonight was that at those moments, the Indian players were getting ahead in the count and almost getting a good read on what potential ball might come down at them. I think zeroing in on those first two balls and how we can structure those better – that’s usually a good starting point.”On Sunday, Australia left out Jason Behrendorff, their best bowler in Visakhapatnam, where he picked up 1 for 25 from his four overs even as India chased down 209. It raised questions as to whether he was unfit, but Borovec clarified it was because they wanted to play two spinners keeping in mind the upcoming T20 World Cup, which will be played in the West Indies and the USA where the pitches are expected to be on the slower side.”We’ve got a few things to consider that we need to see different players in different conditions and one of the considerations today was to have a look at two spinners,” he said. “We thought that was going to be a good attacking option for us, so we decided to structure our bowling around that.Australia’s seamers came in for some punishment•Associated Press

“We had a great conversation with Jase about how good his bowling was. Also, when you look back at it, it was probably one of his better bowling performances for Australia. So it was a really tough decision but one we built around the fact that these conditions, we thought, were going to help spin a little bit more than perhaps Vizag.”Given it had rained on Saturday, there wasn’t much help on offer for spinners. And despite dew starting to settle in as early as the seventh over in the first innings, Tanveer Sangha and Adam Zampa helped Australia pull things back. India had raced away to 77 for 1 in the powerplay but could add only 29 in the next five overs.”The irony was when the dew came, we had some nice overs there around about the seventh to the 11th over,” Borovec said. “It just shows that in T20 cricket sometimes things like that happen that go against the grain. We are probably a little bit disappointed with our execution in the first six. And that’s where we thought the sweet spot was for taking wickets and giving our spinners a chance to bowl at some new batters.”I was really proud of that fightback in that early middle-overs period. Then of course the dew came in and it just made it so difficult to execute, but you can’t fault the endeavour and the plans with the bowlers.”Australia are trying out one more thing in this series: Steven Smith at the top of the order. Opening the batting in the first T20I, he was on 24 off as many balls at one point before finishing on 52 off 41. Here, he scored 19 off 16. Borovec, however, was happy with Smith’s approach.”We have got a number of things we’re looking at,” he said. “We’ve got ten games to fit some of that stuff in. Not all of it is possible. One of the things we had in our planning coming into this series was to have a look at Steve up the top. And we’ve had a chance to do that now and again. We’ve been extremely happy with that intent that he’s shown with the bat.”

Both have not had the impact their high standards demand, and now find themselves at the MCG – a ground that comes with its own challenges for the pair. But could you really bet against them?

Andrew McGlashan22-Dec-20230:31

Could David Warner reverse retirement plans?

Steven Smith had a few words to say about his second-innings lbw as he walked off at Optus Stadium, while the evening before Marnus Labuschagne had needed a trip to hospital to get his hand checked after a vicious blow on an increasingly spiteful surface.Neither moment proved significant for Australia; they won by 360 runs and Labuschagne hadn’t suffered any damage to his hand, although he admitted being “nervous” for a little while. But on an individual basis for two of Australia’s finest-ever players it continued what can probably be described as a frustrating 2023 where neither have quite been able to hit their previous prolific heights.Related

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It’s worth saying that it’s far from a crisis. Smith is averaging 42.65 for the year with three centuries and Labuschagne’s figure is 35.04 with what proved a match-saving hundred at Old Trafford. Still, it’s well below what we have become accustomed to. It is comfortably Labuschagne’s leanest year since he cracked Test cricket in 2019, and in a year where Smith has played at least five Tests it’s his lowest average since 2013.Overall, Australia’s Test batting returns for the year are set to only finish around mid-table among their rivals. Leading into the Boxing Day Test, their overall batting average is 33.77 albeit they have played significantly more matches than anyone else. Conditions in India played a part in that, although only the Indore surface was really a lottery for batters.