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Bottom-of-the-table Warwickshire turned the Royal London Cup North Group table on its head with a five-wicket win over Yorkshire at Edgbaston

ECB Reporters Network14-May-2017
ScorecardIan Bell’s scoring touch has returned•Getty Images

Bottom-of-the-table Warwickshire turned the Royal London Cup North Group table on its head with a five-wicket win over Yorkshire at Edgbaston.The Bears’ defence of the trophy was already over after six successive defeats while The White Rose went into the match top of the group. Yorkshire will still qualify but have ceded top spot in the group to Worcestershire, who defeated Durham at New Road.They built a meaty total thanks to Joe Root’s stylish 83 and a muscular sixth-wicket stand of 116 in 15.1 overs by Tim Bresnan and Matthew Waite, who struck a a List A-best 71 from 58 balls.Warwickshire’s reply was robustly launched by Jonathan Trott and Sam Hain. And after a wobble induced by spinner Azeem Rafiq, they were steered to victory by a cleanly-hit alliance of 111 in 106 balls between Ian Bell, who made 98 from 85 balls, and Rikki Clarke.Warwickshire spinner Jeetan Patel said: “We have come off a run of a few really bad losses and some that were quite tight but credit to the guys for the way they came out today. Grant Thornton bowled really well which is where we need to get to. We are an ageing teams with a lot of experience but we need to be able to trust the younger guys.”After choosing to bat, Yorkshire lost Adam Lyth to the first ball of the match, from Keith Barker, which he edged to wicketkeeper Tim Ambrose.Jonny Bairstow soon miscued Rikki Clarke to mid-on and Peter Handscomb drove expansively and nicked behind off Barker, who bowled his full stint straight off and was unlucky not to harvest better figures than 10-1-39-2.Root and Gary Ballance added 64 in 14 overs before the latter lifted Grant Thornton to long-leg. Root, looking utterly assured, appeared set for his 11th List A century when he feathered an attempted cut at Clarke to the keeper.That left Yorkshire 149 for 5 but Bresnan and Waite joined forces to exploit a short Hollies Stand-side boundary in a century stand. Considering the shortness of that boundary, for Patel (10-0-32-1) to deliver ten overs without conceding a four or six was a remarkable effort.Still, Bresnan’s ninth one-day half-century and Waite’s first had given Warwickshire a stuff target.Trott and Hain gave the Bears’ reply an excellent base but after Trott sent up a skier off Waite, Rafiq struck three times in quick succession. He bowled Hain and Ambrose in the space of three balls and had Ateeq Javid caught at short fine-leg.But Bell and Clarke halted the clatter and then gradually accelerated, Bell ending the group stage in fine form with scores of 93, 104 and 98.

The 33-year old batsman had played only one of their five ODIs this year, but he could potentially quintuple that count by the end of June

ESPNcricinfo staff26-May-2017Hamilton Masakadza, who has played only one of Zimbabwe’s five ODIs this year, has been selected to go to the Netherlands and Scotland in June and Sri Lanka later. Opener Chamu Chibhabha, who last played 50-over cricket for his country in November 2016, and who has only made two fifties in 23 innings, found a way back into the squad as well.Zimbabwe play two games against Scotland on June 15 and 17 and three more against Netherlands on June 20, 22 and 24 before moving on to Sri Lanka for five ODIs and a Test match, the exact schedule for which is not yet fixed. Legspinner Graeme Cremer will lead the team. The former captain Elton Chigumbura was not part of the squad.Masakadza’s only ODI in 2017 came against Afghanistan and he fell for 5 off 17 balls. However, the 33-year old made a hundred for Zimbabwe A against Canada in Harare a week ago to possibly persuade the selectors. Similarly, Sikandar Raza played only one game of the Afghanistan series – his only ODI in 2017 – but he too was backed to perform. Chigumbura, though picked for that series, did not play in any of the matches and his previous appearance in international 50-over cricket dated back to October 2016.While the elder Masakadza was picked, his 23-year old brother and left-arm spinner Wellington was left out of the squad that lost at home to Afghanistan 3-2. Accompanying him on the bench were seamer Carl Mumba and allrounder Nathan Waller.These 10 matches present a significant opportunity for the team for they can help build momentum going into the qualifying tournament in April 2018 for the next World Cup. Only the top-eight teams on the ICC rankings gain automatic qualification into the showpiece event. Zimbabwe, down at No. 11, will have to finish among the top two to have a chance at playing the 2019 World Cup.Zimbabwe squad: Ryan Burl, Sikandar Raza, Tendai Chatara, Chamu Chibhabha, Graeme Cremer (capt), Craig Ervine, Hamilton Masakadza, Solomon Mire, Peter Moor, Christopher Mpofu, Tarisai Musakanda, Richard Ngarava, Donald Tiripano, Malcolm Waller, Sean Williams

In the wake of a bomb blast in Kabul on Wednesday that killed over 80 people, the ACB has cancelled the friendly T20 matches it had scheduled with Pakistan in July and August

Umar Farooq01-Jun-2017The short-lived détente between the Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) and the PCB is seemingly over, barely a week after it had begun. In the wake of a bomb blast in Kabul on Wednesday that killed over 80 people, the ACB has cancelled the friendly T20 matches it had scheduled with Pakistan, to be played in July and August in Kabul and Lahore.No official reason has been provided by the ACB but the board tweeted:
The two boards had come to an agreement last week to revive broken ties by playing two friendly matches in each country. As part of the agreement, the PCB was also to provide Afghanistan with venues for training and conditioning camps, and the possibility of reciprocal tours between the youth and senior teams.A similar deal between the boards was also struck in 2013, when Afghanistan cricketers were given access to the National Cricket Academy in Lahore. Eventually, however, the ACB took to using facilities in Greater Noida in India to train players for tournaments.Last Saturday Atif Mashal, the ACB chairman, met his PCB counterpart Shaharyar Khan in Lahore and after the meeting stressed that both boards were eager to renew ties. In it he hinted at the complex geo-political scenario that inevitably has an impact on cricket relations.”We want this relationship and rebuilt this relationship with mutual respect and mutual understanding,” Mashal had said. “Relations with Pakistan doesn’t mean we don’t have relations with India. We’re always thinking of balancing the relations between Pakistan and India.”India is also a strategic partner, a friend, and they also support Afghanistan cricket. Pakistan did a great job in the development of Afghanistan cricket and we value both nations.”We know there is tension in the border but it’s my job to keep this interaction between two cricketing nations going and to help governments start something positive. We are trying our best to keep sports, especially cricket, away from politics as well as looking for our national interests.”The PCB was set to write a letter to the Pakistan government seeking permission to play in Kabul. And a number of Pakistan players – including Umar Akmal, Sohail Tanvir and Kamran Akmal – were part of the auction for the Shpageeza T20 League, Afghanistan’s six-team franchise-based tournament.But ESPNcricinfo understands that Pakistani participation in the T20 league may now be in jeopardy.

The soft ball turned less sharply off the pitch and the Khettarama surface itself has become easier to bat on, according to Sri Lanka’s interim head coach Nic Pothas, thus allowing Zimbabwe’s revival

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Colombo16-Jul-2017The soft ball turned less sharply off the pitch, and the Khettarama surface itself has become easier to bat on. So said Sri Lanka’s interim head coach Nic Pothas, after Zimbabwe turned a scoreline of 59 for 5 into 252 for 6 by the end of the third day. The unbeaten pair of Sikandar Raza and Malcolm Waller have been most responsible for that turnaround, their partnership currently worth 107.”You’ve got to give credit to our players as well as the opposition,” Pothas said. “Once the hardness went out of the ball, it obviously became a bit more difficult, and it spun less than yesterday. I thought Raza played really well, as did PJ Moor and Waller.”But our guys were phenomenal. They did their jobs. I thought the quality of the fielding was superb. It hasn’t been easy, but we’ll get up again tomorrow morning, try to get a few quick wickets, and then chase a score.”Having conceded a first-innings lead of 10, Sri Lanka are presently looking at a fourth-innings chase north of 300, unless they can dismiss Zimbabwe quickly on the fourth morning. Only three times have teams successfully chased down targets of over 300 in Sri Lanka. One of those occasions had been against Zimbabwe, however – Sri Lanka hunting down 326 at the SSC in 1998.Sri Lanka will hope that, as Pothas says, the Khettarama pitch is not as treacherous as Rangana Herath predicted it would be, 24 hours prior. Both Pothas and cricket manager Asanka Gurusinha have put Sri Lanka’s performances in this Test largely down to conditions.”The pitch has changed quite a bit. Once the hardness went out of the ball today, it didn’t seem like it did as much as yesterday,” Pothas said. “Yesterday and day one the ball spun. At the end of the day we’re playing in the subcontinent and wickets spin. You just need to come up with plans to score, and how you’re going to get wickets. Today it was surprising that it didn’t do as much as expected, but we just need to find a way of getting wickets.”With Herath having claimed nine of the 16 Zimbabwe wickets to fall so far, there has been scrutiny about the performance of the remaining bowlers, who have gone through long spells without threatening to take wickets. Pothas, however, defended Sri Lanka’s quicks in particular, again ascribing their lack of wickets to conditions.”The amount of work those guys put in behind the scenes, and the effort they are putting in today with a soft ball, and a wicket that’s not conducive to fast bowling – I thought they did a fantastic job on it,” he said. “If we’re going to keep judging them, we need a bit of perspective. I think under the conditions they did a great job.”Though Sri Lanka have largely fielded well in this Test – Dimuth Karunaratne taking two especially sharp catches at slip in this innings – their fielding over the past few months has come in for stern criticism, particularly after the Champions Trophy defeat to Pakistan. Pothas, however, again defended the side on that front, suggesting they had turned a corner.”Are we judging them on one hour against Pakistan? I think we need to be careful on that, because in the first innings I thought we fielded phenomenally well. I think in general, we’ve been pretty harsh on them even when they put in good performances. I don’t think they get enough credit for it. When we played against South Africa at The Oval, I thought we fielded brilliantly. We fielded brilliantly against India. Then we had an hour of madness at the end of the Pakistan game, which was unfortunate. Since then we’ve done some pretty good stuff in the field, so I think we need to be a bit careful with always looking at the negative part of their fielding.”Sri Lanka dropped no fewer than six catches during the ODI series against Zimbabwe, however. Half of those chances were straightforward.

The West Indies head coach showers praise on his team for dealing with all the negativity so well and turning it around. He also tags Shai Hope a “man of stone”

Alan Gardner30-Aug-2017Having given a steadfast defence of his players in the build-up to the Headingley Test, West Indies head coach Stuart Law has stoked the embers of the criticism aimed at the tourists from all quarters last week and said it would only help fire them up for the series decider at Lord’s.West Indies lost the first Test against England at Edgbaston by an innings and 209 runs, but hit back in Leeds to claim a famous win. Speaking afterwards to Australian radio station , Law said his team had been unfairly written off, but relished their status as underdogs and would be readying themselves to bite England “on the backside” once again when the third Test begins on September 7.”We weren’t given a chance to beat England, since we landed here,” Law said. “We’ve heard it from every part of the media, the written press, , all the ex-cricketers – we weren’t given a chance, mate, so that actually provided us with a lot of fire, a lot of fuel to produce what we’ve done over the last five days.”I know there’s a lot of people eating humble pie, they’re saying nice things about us, but deep down, they don’t believe in us – which is great for us. We’re going to Lord’s, we’ll still be the underdog… I know Aussies love an underdog, I love being an underdog as well, because you can sneak up and bite your opponent on the backside.”We’re going to celebrate this one long and hard, and so we should. But come tomorrow, we start planning and getting ourselves ready for that showdown at Lord’s.”After West Indies lost 19 wickets on the third day at Edgbaston, they met with a fiercely negative reaction. Curtly Ambrose, a West Indies legend who was previously the team’s bowling coach, called their performance “embarrassing”, while former England opener Geoffrey Boycott described Jason Holder’s side as the worst he had seen in 50 years of playing and commentating.Law, who took over as West Indies head coach at the start of the year, said his main focus has been on convincing an inexperienced group that they were good enough to compete.”Credit to the boys, to put up with the amount of criticism that they copped, not just from opposition fans but also their home fans, to come out and turn it around and produce a performance over the last five days was an outstanding effort.”If you get told you’re rubbish nine times out of ten, you’re going to start believing it pretty soon. These guys have copped it every time they’ve taken on the national duties, so for me, it was just a job of instilling that belief and getting people to understand they’re good enough to play at this level. They’ve got the skills, they’ve got the determination, they’ve got the work ethic. Something’s just got to click out in the middle, you’ve got to believe and trust your own game – that was the conversation we had with the batsmen, particularly.”Our bowling’s been pretty good, our fielding’s still not there – we dropped eight chances, so, theoretically, we should have finished the game some time mid-morning yesterday, but that wasn’t the case. Just their belief in their own abilities. Once they believe in themselves, they can play cricket, these kids. I believe that they’re as talented as any other player going around on the planet.”Stuart Law reserved special praise for Shai Hope and likened his strokemaking to Mark Waugh’s•Getty Images

When asked about 23-year old Shai Hope, who hit the winning runs and created history by becoming the first man to score twin centuries in a first-class match at Headingley, Law compared him to former Australia team-mate Mark Waugh, adding that Hope was a “man of stone” who England had been unable to crack.”He’s had a pretty torrid time in international cricket since his introduction. But he has got the talent, and when he gets going, he’s one of the nicest guys to watch. He plays some beautiful drives, cuts and the whip work off his pads – a bit like Mark Waugh. He put it all together, he’s got determination beyond belief, he’s a man of stone. You talk to him, try and crack a joke and he just stonewalls you. I can’t crack him, England haven’t been able to crack him, hopefully that remains the same at Lord’s.”Although West Indies have a chance to win a Test series in England for the first time since 1988, Law was keen not to put additional pressure on the team. He said that the management was in the process of trying to “create a different culture” that would put West Indies on an upward trajectory during his time in the job – initially on a two-year contract.”Improvement for me isn’t necessarily winning the series,” he said. “It means we go out and give a really good account of ourselves at Lord’s again. And if we don’t capitulate and lose in three days, like we did at Edgbaston, I think we’ve improved out of sight and that’s a great step forward for this group.”So far, the signs are looking good. We’re trying to break the culture and create a different culture, which sometimes can take two years. These guys are embracing it, the hard work is now starting to pay off for them… I don’t want to put them under that much pressure. I want them a) to play with a smile on their face, and b) just go out and express themselves. I’m here give them a bit of guidance, a bit of support, a bit of love, and hopefully, they go out and achieve what they want to achieve.”

Ollie Pope took the last nine runs of his first professional hundred from the part-time medium-pace of James Vince, but it was a century in only his third first-class match for all that

ESPNcricinfo staff08-Sep-2017Ollie Pope’s maiden hundred enlived a meaningless draw•Getty Images

Ollie Pope, making only his third first-class appearance, struck a maiden first-class century which culminated in slightly hollow circumstances with an over from the part-time bowling of James Vince, the former England batsman, in a match long destined for a draw.Pope, 19, appeared in complete control throughout his free-flowing innings, cutting and pulling with gusto, as he ended up on an unbeaten 100.Vince maintained appearances as he added five deliveries of respectable medium pace to the eight overs he had previously bowled in the Championship this season.Pope took two nine runs from Vince’s over to reach his hundred. As soon as it was achieved, in only his third first-class appearance, captains George Bailey and Gareth Batty shock hands to end the game at 4.30pm.Pope could take pride in his breakthrough, nevertheless. “The first champo hundred was always going to be a special moment and luckily it came a lot quicker than I had anticipated,” he said. “It is an incredibly proud moment.”This is a moment I have dreamed about and it was just about when it was going to come. The first 40 odd runs I had to work pretty hard for because they came at us because they had a game to win.Surrey were in slight danger – only 32 on with half the day remaining when they lost their fourth wicket, but Pope and Ben Foakes added an unbroken stand of 158 in 40 overs.Pope reached his first professional half century in 89 balls before accelerating to three figures from 137 delivery. Foakes had batted a similarly impressive innings to reach 83 not out, having scored his fifty in 113 balls.Rain washed out all but five overs on the opening day, and despite two full days, rain on the morning of the fourth day ended hopes of a positive result.Instead Hampshire keep hold of their third place position by taking an additional bonus point, with Surrey remaining fourth.

After his fighting first-innings 80, Raza picked up his maiden Test five-for and said he was both proud and humbled by the achievement

Liam Brickhill in Bulawayo31-Oct-2017Sikandar Raza was Zimbabwe’s unlikely bowling hero on the third day at Queens Sports Club. After his fighting first-innings 80, Raza picked up his maiden Test five-for and said he was both proud and humbled by the achievement.

‘We’ll put more miles on their legs’ – Powell

West Indies opener Kieran Powell believes it is “definitely advantage Windies” after they ended the third day with a lead of 48 runs in Bulawayo.
“If we could stretch this to a 100-150 run lead, that would be massive,” Powell said. “We’re only 48 runs ahead now, but we’ve put lots of miles on their legs. We’re going to come back tomorrow with two set guys as well, put some more miles on their legs and stretch out that lead as much as possible. Any lead is a good lead on this pitch. Tomorrow we don’t know if the pitch is going to start going up and down, so we’ve got to get as big a lead as possible that will help us push for a result.”
Powell played a significant role in pushing West Indies ahead. With Kraigg Brathwaite for company, he ground Zimbabwe down on Monday afternoon before upping the tempo on day three.
“It was just the flow of the day’s play,” Powell said. “Obviously, yesterday they bowled a bit tighter, and they bowled better lines. Today they gave us more scoring opportunities, and as the day progressed we had guys lower down the order to push the score along as well.”

“It’s quite a humbling and proud feeling, especially seeing your team do well as you take five,” Raza said. “It’s one of the roles you have as an allrounder. We always knew that missing [Kyle] Jarvis and Sean [Williams] would be tough. The way that [Graeme] Cremer bowled it could have been him as well.”I still like to think that I’m a batter who can bowl, but being an allrounder it becomes a responsibility that you need to step up whenever you are given an opportunity. We are spending a lot more time as a spinning unit working on our bowling compared to six months ago, so to see the rewards like this is certainly humbling.”Raza finished the day with 5 for 82 from 43 overs. He might easily have had a sixth wicket when he trapped Jason Holder in front of the stumps when he had scored just 11, but Umpire Kumar Dharmasena disagreed with the appeal and Zimbabwe had already used up all of their reviews. Indeed, it was Raza who had used their last review attempting to dislodge Kieran Powell.”It is what it is,” Raza said. “I said to the captain that I think I deserved it because we went for a review on Powell when we shouldn’t have. Kumar said he heard an inside edge. We didn’t. But a few go your way and a few don’t. The [Roston] Chase decision could have gone either way. You win some you lose some.”Holder went on to strike an unbeaten 71, putting on 144 for the eighth wicket with Shane Dowrich and extending West Indies lead to 48 at the close. “We wanted to be 48 ahead,” Raza said. “If the decision against Holder had gone our way then that could have happened. But we tried everything, we bowled well, we fielded well, our energies were up. Sometimes you’re going to have to raise your hand and say that we tried everything and it didn’t work because the opposition have batted well. Credit to them for batting that well.”A natural optimist, Raza reminded the press corp that Zimbabwe were just a few overs away from the new ball on Wednesday morning. Only half joking, he also said he would be willing to open the bowling in West Indies’ second innings.”The last hour was easier [for West Indies] because there wasn’t much turn and what turn there was, was slow,” Raza said. “But we’re 10 overs away from a third new ball, so that’s a positive. I think if Cremer refuses then I’ll pick up the ball and take the first over [in the second innings]. But the way the body is feeling right now, I might make sure he uses all the utilities before he comes to me.”With two more full days to go in the second Test, Raza suggested that Zimbabwe would be happy defending 270 to 300 runs on a pitch likely to break up in the next two days.”Hopefully, we come back fresh tomorrow with all three spinners and two seamers and have a plan how we’re going to go about our business,” he said. “First we have to look at how we get these three wickets and then how we bat second time around. Depending on the time, I think 270 to 300 would be a good total to defend.”

Trevor Bayliss has called on CA and the ECB to “get together” to ensure a better standard of preparation for both teams on Ashes tours

George Dobell in Townsville18-Nov-2017Trevor Bayliss has called on CA and the ECB to “get together” to ensure a better standard of preparation for both teams on Ashes tours.Bayliss, the England coach, has stated several times that he would have preferred England to encounter stiffer opposition ahead of the first Test but has been at pains to point out that the situation is not so different for Australia when they visit the UK.As a result, Bayliss has already spoken to Andrew Strauss – the director of England cricket – to suggest that first-class matches against an A team (effectively the national second XI) are written into future Ashes schedules ahead of the first Test, adding that he will speak to Pat Howard (Strauss’s counterpart in Australia) about the matter in the coming days.”Both Australia and England should be getting together and having at least one match against the A team before each series,” Bayliss said. “I’ve already mentioned it to Strauss and I will mention it to Pat Howard when I see him too.There was a certain irony in the timing of Bayliss’ words. While the CA XI that England played in Townsville contained just one man with a first-class century to his name prior to the match – Nick Larkin – by the time it ended, two more young Australian batsmen had maiden first-class hundreds. And as England laboured throughout the final day in taking just one wicket, it became harder to sustain the argument that the opposition was as modest as had first appeared.In truth, though, that was partially the result of an unusually slow, flat wicket which is unlikely to be replicated during the Ashes series. And while the England camp are reluctant to make any public complaint about the preparation they have been provided by CA, there is a sense that both the surfaces and the opposition to this point have left them facing a major change of quality – and specifically pace – when they arrive at the Gabba.Underlining that suspicion – or, depending on your view, paranoia – is the training schedule ahead of the first Test on Thursday. England will train in the afternoon on Tuesday and Wednesday – often teams alternate between morning and afternoon sessions on consecutive days – giving them slightly less time to rest and slightly less exposure to conditions throughout the day.”That was a bone of contention,” Bayliss said. “The home team makes the programme and that’s just the way it is. We will take it on the chin and get on with it.”

The 17-year old fast bowler has impressed all year, with wickets against the touring West Indies, England and Namibia U-19 teams

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Dec-2017Thando Ntini, the 17-year old son of former South Africa fast bowler Makhaya Ntini, has been selected in South Africa’s squad for the 2018 U-19 World Cup in New Zealand. Ntini is part of the 15-member group that will be captained by Raynard van Tonder.Like his father Makhaya – who also played one U-19 World Cup – Thando is a right-arm fast bowler and has taken ten wickets in eight youth one-dayers. His breakthrough series was against the touring West Indies U-19 team in July, where he took seven wickets in four matches in what was also his first outing as an U-19 player. Since then, Ntini has been part of the team’s fabric and also played during the recent youth tri-series against England and Namibia.Wicketkeeper Wandile Makwetu is the only member of the squad to travel for a second World Cup. He was part of the national team in the 2016 tournament in Bangladesh as well.”I’m confident that we have chosen the combination that will give us the desired results,” Lawrence Mahatlane, the team’s coach, said. “More than half of the squad have semi-professional cricket experience and we even have a franchise player in Matthew Breetzke.”The U-19 World Cup will be played between January 13 and February 3, with South Africa slotted into Group A. They will open their campaign against Kenya on January 14 in Lincoln. The other teams in Group A are hosts New Zealand and defending champions West Indies.South Africa U-19 squad: Raynard van Tonder (capt), Matthew Breetzke, Jean du Plessis, Jason Niemand, Gerald Coetzee, Jade de Klerk, Fraser Jones, Wandile Makwetu, Andile Mogakane, Kgaudise Molefe, Thando Ntini, Jiveshen Pillay, Hermann Rolfes, Kenan Smith, Akhona Mnyaka

Yuvraj Singh and Manan Vohra also contributed significantly as Punjab chased down Mumbai’s target of 199 with three wickets in hand

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Jan-2018Shreyas Iyer’s unbeaten 44-ball 79 was trumped by Punjab‘s collective assault as they chased down Mumbai‘s target of 199 with three wickets and four balls in hand in Kolkata. Yuvraj Singh struck a 34-ball 40, while Gurkeerat Singh (43 off 18 balls) and Manan Vohra (42 off 31 balls) produced quicker cameos.Iyer, who made his international debut last season, has been retained by Delhi Daredevils for INR 7 crore ahead of the IPL auction. The likes of Yuvraj – who has set his base price at the highest bracket of INR 2 crore – Vohra (INR 20 lakh) and Gurkeerat (INR 50 lakh) are likely to receive a few bids at the auction. Yuvraj has had a decent run lately, having produced scores of 50* and 35* during the zonal phase of the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament.Earlier, Mumbai, having been put in to bat, began in rousing fashion with Akhil Herwadkar and Jay Bista scoring 45 runs in 5.2 overs before the latter was removed by Mayank Markande. Iyer and Herwadkar then put on 73 runs for the second wicket. After Herwadkar’s dismissal in the 14th over, there weren’t many big partnerships but Shivam Dubey’s 22 off 12 balls and captain Aditya Tare’s unbeaten 13 included a few big hits. Punjab captain Harbhajan Singh went wicketless in his three overs and conceded 27 runs.Punjab’s chase barely had a hiccup after Vohra and Mandeep Singh set things up with a 42-run stand in 3.5 overs. With Harbhajan continuing to bat at No. 3, Yuvraj, Gurkeerat and Sharad Lumba (21 off 10 balls) provided the middle-order muscle.