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County cricket day two: Somerset v Notts, Leicestershire v Sussex and more – live | Cricket
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Five wickets for Pennington!
The first five-fer of the season! Pennington polished off the Somerset tail, just short of a third batting point. Somerset 347 all out. Can Overton, who bashed 60 not out with the bat, now do it with the ball too? Notts 0-0
Fifty for Jake Weatherald
A really impressive debut Championship innings from Jake Weatherald in overcast conditions and on a quite juicy pitch. Chilly too. His nut brown arms tell the tale of a summer spent playing cricket in very different conditions. Fifty from 65 balls, seven fours. Leicestershire 88 for two.
A good start for Warwicks
At Edgbaston, Surrey were finally dismissed for 328 – a fabulous recovery from 65 for six. Three wickets for Bamber, two each for Woakes, Thompson, Gilchrist and Barnard.
Warwickshire have gritted their teeth after the disappointment and made a good start to their innings. Yates and Davies have faced 50 balls a piece, one has 13, the other 40 – I’ll let you guess which is which. Warwicks 66 for 0.
A hundred for Matt Critchley!
A thirteenth first-class century for Critchley, but he’s lost Allison for 80, at last a result for the short stuff from Hants. Essex 259 for four.
Fifties for Ben Kellaway and Colin Ingram
From the depths of 28 for four last night, Ben Kellaway and Colin Ingram have rebuilt Glamorgan. Kellaway, another Lion predicted to have a bright future, reached his half-century first before being bowled by a gorgeous ball from Dom Bess. Glamorgan 137 for five, Ingram 59 not out.
Again apologies that things are slow this morning, the wifi keeps dropping in and out and the hotspot on my phone is also being disobedient. Here, quickly, before it drops again, Ollie Robinson has sent nightwatchman Scriven on his way, before taking himself off. Weatherald and Holland drop anchor.
With an hour gone, let’s trot round the grounds.
“Salutations Tanya!” Good morning Tim Maitland.
“I am torn between two burning issues.
”Firstly, why does the UK insist on giving storms such ridiculously benign names? Storm Dave is more likely to give people the impression that there’s time for a nice cup of tea and some custard creams rather than the desired effect of battening down the metaphorical hatches. What’s wrong with using the names of historical villains? Storm Genghis? Storm Atilla? Storm Thatcher? At the very least give them French names and strike fear into the heart of the general population.
”The second thought is would the England batting line-up be better with a player like Ben Foakes in it? I’m not specifically banging the drum for Foakes, just for the England management to resists the urge to fill their side with yet more peroxide-tipped, high testosterone pyjama cricketers fashioned in their own likeness and instead add a player late in the order capable of having a steadying influence – much in the way that Joe Root calms the top of the order when he inevitably comes in to bat 20 minutes into the innings – and occasionally buy time for the last survivor of the specialist batters or Ben Stokes himself to build their own innings. Someone who can do more than provide another cameo of carnage before handing the initiative back to the bowling side.
“I only mention this as two days of yellow storm warnings and a forecast of snow in the Scottish Highlands should presumably give us all a surfeit of time to consider such things.”
Sadly, I think Ben Foakes time has passed – which seems a ridiculous thing to say about such a talented player.
One for Lancashire fans
A little plug for Paul Edwards, sitting next to me here at Grace Road and supplying statistical nuggets for the blog on a daily basis. He and Graham Hardcastle have set up a new website lankylanky.com, which will cover all aspects of Lancs cricket, including in-depth features, profiles, historical pieces, batting collapses etc. It will be wide-ranging, looking at men’s, women’s and disability cricket as well as the recreational game.
There is a 20 per cent discount until the end of April, code: LANKY20.
Round the grounds, Somerset have a second batting point (Overton 38 not out); Martin Andersson has knocked up a career-best 150 for Derbyshire; Ben Sanderson has nipped out George Balderson for 21, Lancs 394-8.
Ollie Robinson’s first over brings a caught behind appeal against Scriven. Robinson is sure of it and most fed up when turned down.
A statistical goblet from yesterday: Yesterday was 8,231 days since Leicestershire last played first-division cricket. That day was 19 Sept 2003, playing Sussex at Hove, the same match that Sussex won the Championship.
Sorry everyone, a few wifi problems this morning. A blowy gray day at Grace Road but things will start on time.
Ali Martin’s report from Birmingham
Friday’s round-up
The spectre of the Ashes loomed over day one of a new Championship season, every innings, every wicket, a play in one act sent straight to the laptop of Brendon McCullum.
England Lion Emilio Gay won the race to the first century of the season for Durham, a classy innings, fierce on the loose ball, and in tricky conditions at Chester-le-Street. When he was finally out, a fourth catch of the day to Kent’s Zak Crawley, he had pocketed 128 from just 140 balls.
Crawley’s turn with the bat went about as well as Jamie Smith’s and Ollie Pope’s over at Edgbaston, two boundaries before falling lbw to Matthew Potts for nine.
At Grace Road Tom Clark embroidered a stylish 101, as Sussex gave promoted Leicestershire a bloody nose in the morning session, racing to 155 for two by lunch. Lion Tom Haines made a giddy half-century and James Coles, of mega-deal Hundred fame, a pretty 28. An England and Wales Cricket Board bowling scout, watching from the wings, then saw Ollie Robinson remove Rishi Patel in the four overs of Leicestershire’s innings possible before stumps
At Taunton, Somerset performed their usual rescue act, this time from 14 for two against the champions. Tom Abell stroked a flawless 108, and he and young James Rew (64) added 140 for the fourth wicket against Nottinghamshire. One of Rew’s drives lilted through covers like a lullaby. Craig Overton clubbed 32.
Rain wiped out much of the day at Sophia Gardens but Glamorgan, back in Division One for the first time since 2005, had a tricky start. They lost four wickets in six overs against Yorkshire including the fancied Asa Tribe, who donated Jonny Bairstow a pillowy catch. Ben Kellaway and Colin Ingram rebuilt to 99 for four at stumps.
History was made at Southampton, where Noah Thain became the first full substitute in County Championship history under the ECB’s new experimental rule change. He replaced the Essex captain, Tom Westley, whose finger was fractured by a snorter from Hampshire’s Sonny Baker. Wobbling at 67 for three, and with Westley retired hurt, Matt Critchley (97no) and Charlie Allison (60no) rebuilt calmly. There was a minute’s silence at the start of the match in memory of Hampshire and England legend Robin Smith, who died during the winter.
There was also a minute’s silence at Lord’s, to remember long-serving groundsman Mick Hunt. On a stodgy day, Leus du Plooy’s 98 not out helped Middlesex to 279 for five against Gloucestershire.
It was a tough day for Worcestershire’s bowlers at Derbyshire, where Martin Andersson shimmied a rapid unbeaten 134. Worcestershire are without South African signing Beyers Swanepoel, whose desperation to get to New Road was such that he left for the airport with seven overs of a domestic one-day final to go and then found that a furious South African had withheld his no-objection certificate. “Beyers would probably say he’s made a bit of an error in hindsight,” said the Worcestershire chief executive, Ashley Giles.
Lancashire were the only side who won the toss and batted and could be happy enough with their work against Northamptonshire thanks to 90 from Josh Bohannon, 87 from Luke Wells and 71 from Michael Jones.
Scores on the doors
DIVISION ONE
Sophia Gardens: Glamorgan 99-4 v Yorkshire
Southampton: Hampshire v Essex 219-3
Grace Road: Leicestershire 15-1 v Sussex 361
Taunton: Somerset 292-6 v Nottinghamshire
Edgbaston: Warwickshire v Surrey 328
DIVISION TWO
The County Ground: Derbyshire 391-4 v Worcestershire
Chester le Street: Durham 335 v Kent 50-2
Lord’s: Middlesex 279-5 v Gloucestershire
Wantage Road: Northamptonshire v Lancashire 346-7
Preamble
Good morning! In Leicester, the sparrows are chirping as the city stretches into Easter Saturday.
At Grace Road, Sussex, giddy from for their success on day one, will press further. I worry a little what havoc Ollie Robinson might unleash on Leicestershire’s batting line up. Anyway, it all starts at 11am – do join us for news around the grounds.
The family of Shaun Burton, say they are “devastated” by the loss.
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Key events
In the opening half an hour against Cape Verde, Mikel Oyarzabal, the centre-forward, did not get a single touch.
Kyle Green gets in touch: “Your highlighting of Lalas and his absurdity is something that has prevented me from wanting to watch the coverage on Fox. While every channel has its pros and cons I just can’t.
“I’m 45 and probably the youngest of anyone who remembers him as a player instead of an opinionated insert insult here. As for the match this could be more competitive than it looks on paper Spain need a win the pressure is on them. Saudi Arabia could hold out for a draw and see what happens in their last match. “
News from the England camp, and it seems to be good news on Declan Rice.
“I’m ready and fit, raring to go. I was feeling a little bit of neural pain in my hamstring, which I was managing from after Christmas with Arsenal for a very long time. Obviously, not a lot of people would have known that. It was all behind-the-scenes stuff but it was a smart decision.
“In the end, that last 20 minutes is probably where you pick up the most, and it’s where you play a 70-minute match. But that last 20 is where you really feel your body going for it. And I think it was a smart decision because the last few days I felt really, really good.”
Alex Reid has penned today’s weekend special Football Daily.
Portugal v Uzbekistan on Tuesday enticingly pits the incredibly nice, incredibly 41-year-old-superstar-tolerant Roberto Martínez against Fabio Cannavaro, who’s won a Ballon d’Or as a player and the Chinese Super League as a coach. While the fixture following that game really does see the dream of Thomas Tuchel – in his first international job with England – taking on Queiroz, who is in charge of his ninth national side with Ghana.
The expected formations are 4-2-3-1 for Spain, and 5-3-2 for the Saudi Arabians.
The Saudi team features two Donis changes: Ali Lajami, a defender, and Nasser Al Dawsari, a midfielder, are preferred to Mohammed Abu Al Shamat and Mohamed Kanno. You may recall Salem Al Dawsari, the Saudi captain, as the man who scored the winner against Argentina.
An entertaining read, even for those of us who have just seen the clips.
In a conversation where his co-panelist is casually reminiscing about his days playing alongside Messi or exchanging shirts with Ronaldo Nazário at the World Cup, what exactly is Lalas going to talk about – coming on as a second-half substitute for Earnie Stewart in a friendly against Scotland in 1998? Helping the Kansas City Wizards finish last in the 1999 MLS Western Conference? Did Lalas enjoy an elite playing career? No. But does he do the background reading that could compensate for his relative lack of standing in a conversation with titans like Henry and Zlatan? Also no. But is he charming or funny or charismatic or otherwise magnetic on screen? Eh, no.
For the record, I once interviewed Alexi Lalas on the challenge of playing against Romario in the 1994 World Cup. He had this to say:
“He could kill you in so many different ways. If you remember from that World Cup, he scored so many types of goals. That ranged from solo adventures to an outside-of-the-right-foot half-volley off a corner kick. Romario was both the most difficult to play against and the best that I have faced.
“Roberto Baggio was doing his thing, but in terms of consistency and living up to the hype, he [Romario] was the best. As with all stars, there was a moment when the fans sit up in their seats, and that was a feeling I got with Romario. When it got close to him and the potential for his involvement in a play was there, everybody sat up in their seat. They knew that something spectacular would be happening.”
Saturday’s match reports here.
The Saudi Arabia coach, and Blackburn legend, Georgios Donis, spoke about the challenges facing his team: “Spain is not the same team when Yamal or Williams are on the bench.
“While they still have plenty of possession, they lack the individual one-on-one penetration when these two are missing. I’m not saying it’s a problem for Spain, but when those players are missing, they play in a different way. We saw this very clearly against Cape Verde.
“We are playing against one of the best teams in the world, and it’s very important that when you play against these kinds of teams, you should enjoy the experience and respect the opponent, but not too much.
“It is very hard for any team playing against Spain to have any time in possession. So what we must do is to be more in control of our movement and compact, and when the ball goes through the lines, be able to defend dynamically.
“It’s nice to see miracles in football, and we’ve seen favourites losing against underdogs. Of course, it’s great for Saudi football to have a great memory of the result against Argentina, but we aren’t drawing anything from that.
“I think we’ll feel more pressure in that [Cape Verde] game than we will against Spain.”
The Spain coach, Luis De La Fuente had this to say in his Saturday press conference: “This generation of footballers is highly competitive and really fired up… It’s going to be a completely different story,” he said at his pre-match press conference on Saturday. There is no drama or crisis. The bottom line is simply that we need to win tomorrow.”
Four changes for Spain: Lamine Yamal, Pedro Porro, Dani Olmo and Alex Baena also come into the side with Marcos Llorente, Fabian Ruiz, Ferran Torres and Gavi dropping out.
The teams – Lamine Yamal starts
Spain: Simon, Porro, Cubarsi, Laporte, Cucurella, Gonzalez, Rodri, Yamal, Olmo, Baena, Oyarzabal. Subs: Raya, Joan Garcia, Pubill, Grimaldo, Eric Garcia, Llorente, Merino, Torres, Fabian, Gavi, Pino, Williams, Zubimendi, Munoz, Iglesias.
Saudi Arabia: Al Owais, Abdulhamid, Tambakti, Lajami, Al Amri, Al Harbi, Nasser Al Dawsari, Al Khaibari, Al Juwayr, Al Buraikan, Salem Al Dawsari. Subs: Al Aqidi, Al Kassar, Majrashi, Yahya, Al Shehri, Al Boushal, Kadesh, Al Johani, Al Ghannam, Al Hajji, Al Hamdan, Mandash, Kanno, Thakri, Abu Al Shamat.
Referee: Raphael Claus (Brazil)
Perhaps one of the Saudi -players can write themselves into this high-grade selection?
Perhaps it can be their goalkeeper.
Madrid screening of Spain v Saudi Arabia cancelled due to heat
The public screening of Spain’s World Cup match against Saudi Arabia in Madrid on Sunday has been cancelled because of extreme heat forecast for the Spanish capital, officials said.
The match, due to kick off at 6pm local time on Sunday, had been scheduled to be shown on a giant screen installed by the Spanish football federation (RFEF) at a fan zone in Plaza de Colón in central Madrid.
Madrid city council and the federation decided to cancel the screening after national weather agency AEMET issued an orange heat warning – the second-highest level – for the Madrid region, with temperatures forecast to reach 40C.
“The decision has been taken with the aim of protecting the health of attendees, event staff and support services involved in the event,” Madrid city hall said in a statement, apologising for any inconvenience.
Officials urged supporters to watch the match indoors in air-conditioned spaces and avoid prolonged exposure to the heat.
Large parts of Spain are experiencing unusually high temperatures for June as a mass of hot air from North Africa moves across the Iberian Peninsula.
A total of 13 of Spain’s 17 regions are on orange alert for heat on Sunday, while the northern Basque Country bordering France is on red alert, the highest level.
Authorities advised residents and visitors to take precautions during the heatwave, including drinking water regularly, staying in cool environments, limiting outdoor physical activity during the hottest hours of the day and taking extra care of vulnerable people. AFP
Can Saudi Arabia repeat the magic of 2022?
Argentina arrived in Qatar on a 36-game unbeaten run. When Lionel Messi opened the scoring from the penalty spot after 10 minutes, a comfortable afternoon seemed in the offing. Saleh al-Shehri and Salem al-Dawsari had other ideas, Argentina had three goals disallowed for offside in the space of 13 minutes and the greatest comeback in Saudi Arabia football history was made. Argentina went on to lift the trophy, while defeats to Poland and Mexico meant the Saudis did not reach the knock-out stage.
Unai Simon over David Raya is a controversial choice for De la Fuentes. The Arsenal keeper could lay claim to being Europe’s best this season.
“Those at the Champions League final had a few more days, so I got there on the Wednesday night,” Raya says. “I arrived a bit before Fabián [Ruiz]. I was saying hello to some of the others in reception when he arrived. I went to say congratulations; that was almost the first thing I did. I couldn’t really talk [to him] after the final; I just didn’t have it in me. The next day we talked about the game properly. Just two mates chatting … I was happy for him that he could lift the trophy for a second time.”
A high pressure game for the European champions, as Sid Lowe reports.
“If we had scored one, the game would have changed,” Martín Zubimendi said. Immediately after the game, De la Fuente had offered a simple analysis: when the ball doesn’t want to go in it doesn’t want to go in, he insisted. Spain had racked up 27 shots, after all. Ferran Torres had hit the bar and seen another clear opportunity saved. Vozinha, the 40-year-old goalkeeper who stopped that, saved six more and was named the man of the match. “There’s nothing to reproach the team for,” Rodri said. “We generated chances but couldn’t put it away; the good thing is they created almost nothing.”
We wait to see what role Lamine Yamal will play today. His coach would surely like to be able to use him.
The worst mistake we could make would be to compare him to anyone. He is the midst of a process. He has exceptional footballing maturity and lives it all with total naturalness. He has great serenity and strength. We have to let him follow his path but those players who have something different are ready for that. They’re geniuses, like Dalí [who] can paint a picture, or Michelangelo. They’re different. What is exceptional to us, isn’t to them. In those extremes, they feel comfortable. Why? Because they are different. What we think is exceptional, they consider normal.
Preamble
Spain’s campaign did not get off to a flying start, and Luis de la Fuentes may wake up in the night to visions of Cape Verde’s Vozinha. He will have Georgia on his mind ever since Monday. Saudi Arabia are no pushovers and gave Uruguay a scare in their opening match. Memories of downing Argentina four years ago still abound, and so Spain might beware. They can ill afford to go into the final game with Uruguay at a disadvantage. All eyes on Lamine Yamal, whose fitness situation remains opaque, though Spain need their other forwards to come to the party.
Kick-off 5pm UK, 1pm ET, 2am AEST. Join me.
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