Italy beat Guernsey in T20 World Cup qualifier
Guernsey suffered a heavy seven-wicket loss to Italy in their opening game in the European T20 World Cup qualifiers. Playing in the final round of qualification for the first time the Channel Islanders struggled with the bat in Utrecht as they were restricted to 122-9.Italy made their target of 127-3 in just 14 overs as opener Justin Mosca scored 66 not out.It mean both Channel Island sides lost their opening matches after Jersey were beaten by hosts the Netherlands earlier on Saturday.Guernsey will face Scotland on Sunday before then meeting Jersey and the hosts in the round robin format tournament.The top two sides in the five-team group will qualify for the 2026 T20 World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
Guernsey made a poor start as Adam Martel was run out for 1 at the end of the first over. Martin Dale Bradley and Ben Fitchet put on 33 for the second wicket before Bradley was caught by former Australia Test player Joe Burns for 18. Fitchet was trapped lbw by Harry Manenti two balls later as they slumped to 36-3 off 5.4 overs. Matt Stokes went on to make 13 while Tom Nightingale's 35 provided the backbone of Guernsey's innings - he and brother Ollie put on 24 for the sixth wicket. But when Tom was caught and bowled by Benjamin Manenti for 35 Guernsey's outside hopes ended as they lost three wickets for just one run to leave them on 101-8 off 16.4 overs. Ollie Nightingale scored 17 before he was caught with the penultimate ball of the innings as the Sarnians ended on 122-9.Luke Bichard took Emilio Gay's wicket in the first over for 8 as Italy's reply began with a stutter.But they recovered well as Mosca and Burns (30) put on 62 for the second wicket before Harry Manenti hit 22 off 22 balls.Manenti was dismissed after 13.3 overs as Mosca guided the Italians home with an impressive 37-ball knock that included three sixes and six fours.
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The Guardian
35 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Ben Stokes' waning influence with the bat on display in England's soggy defeat
It was raining hard in Birmingham on Sunday morning. A weight of great black clouds broke over the city while it was feeling its way into the day. On the streets people pressed themselves together under the cover of bus stops and awnings: revellers off to the Queens Heath pride festival, heavy metal lovers making their way home after Black Sabbath's farewell gig at Villa Park the previous evening, and cricket supporters bound for the ground, most of them with last-minute tickets, split between anxious Indian and wry English fans, the only people in the city who were happy enough to be getting wet. The bad weather was about the only way England were going to get out of this match with a draw. A team who have spent three years learning how to do the improbable were in no position at all to attempt the unremarkable and bat out the match, even after the rain had washed out the first hour-and-a-half of the day. Their attempt to play out the remaining 80 overs of the game was as good as up by the lunch break, broken by a superb spell of fast bowling by Akash Deep, who had only played seven Tests before this, but is 28, and has spent years in Indian first class cricket learning how to get every last bit out of unhelpful pitches like this one. Deep took as many wickets in this match as England's four quicks managed between them and gave them one long lesson in how to bowl in their own conditions. He produced more good balls in his first spell on Sunday than they had between them in the match. One of them got Ollie Pope, dismissed playing the sort of janky defensive shot that makes people question his spot in the order all over again, and another did for Harry Brook, who was beaten by a jaffa that nipped back off a crack and smacked into his thigh bone. So in came Ben Stokes, England's last hope now the clouds had blown over. Strange to say about a man who's performed so many wonders, but it felt like no hope at all. Stokes is just the sort of man you might hire to slay the Nemean Lion, but it's less obvious that he's the one you would send in with a shovel to muck out the Augean Stables. Time was when he could do it for you. It's easy to forget, among everything else he's done for England, that he's played a series of rearguard innings over the years for captains before him, 66 off 188 balls against New Zealand in 2018, 62 off 187 against India at Trent Bridge later that same year. But anyone who's watching knows those days are a way behind him. On Sunday, Stokes managed just over an hour and a half of batting. There was one of those familiar pull shots against Prasidh Krishna, like a lumberjack making the last cut on a California redwood, and a couple of crisp glances to fine leg, but that was about the best of it. He was, he always is, bamboozled by Ravindra Jadeja's way of bowling into the rough outside off-stump. It's like watching a grizzly bear try to solve a Rubik's Cube. He was eventually done, in the last over before lunch, by one of Washington Sundar's innocuous off-breaks. Stokes has such a big influence as captain that it goes almost unnoticed that he has so little influence as a batsman. He's made one century in the past three years, and that was a bar-room brawl in a losing cause against Australia at Lord's, when he was furious that Alex Carey had run out Jonny Bairstow. Since then, he's scored six fifties in 33 innings, none bigger, or better, than the 80 he made in the first innings of an English victory in Christchurch last November. His batting average was 39 in the first year of his captaincy, but was 28 last year, and is just 19 so far in this one. Among all the other records Shubman Gill set this week, he outscored Stokes by 397 runs in the match, which is the largest gap between two captains in the history of Test cricket. Gill, of course, doesn't have to do any of his team's bowling. Stokes was superb with the ball at Headingley just last week. For all the hard work he's put into that over the past 12 months, you wonder how he would be batting now if he had been willing, or able, to put the same sort of time into the other side of his all-round game. He didn't play at all for Durham this year, and aside from his England commitments, he's had exactly one red ball innings in the past year. Sign up to The Spin Subscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week's action after newsletter promotion It's asking a hell of a lot of him to bat as well as he bowls, and bowl as well as he leads, but that's what England need.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
Ben Stokes says sloppy start led to heavy England defeat by India at Edgbaston
England captain Ben Stokes said the first innings was the key to his side's heavy defeat to India in the second Test. Stokes, who put the tourists into bat on day one after winning the toss, saw England crumble to a mammoth 336-run loss at Edgbaston on Sunday as India squared the series at 1-1. England were in the game on day one but lost control and were bowled out for 271 on the final day. Stokes said on Sky Sports: 'It's a tough one. I think two moments, having them 200 for five in the first innings we were really happy with, but then just not being able to burst them open after a really good start on the ball. 'Obviously being 80 for five in our reply to India's big first innings there, it was obviously going to be tough to be able to scrape it back from there. 'Having a team 200 for five, you feel like you're in a really strong position. But as the game got deeper and deeper, it sort of turned into a wicket that we probably didn't think how it would play. 'It probably suited India more than than us, to be honest, as the game went on.' Only Jamie Smith put up any resistence in England's second innings, scoring 88, which left him 12 short of hitting double centuries in the match following his 184 not out in the first innings. Stokes said of the wicketkeeper: 'Jamie's been incredible since he's been in the team. 'Obviously he's been exceptional with the gloves. He goes under the radar with his wicket-keeping, which is, I think, what you want in the wicketkeeper. 'It just shows that he went out there and stuck to his guns and played his natural game. And the way that him and Harry (Brook) were able to wrestle the momentum back towards us, although it wasn't enough in the end, I thought it was very, very special part of the match.' India captain Shubman Gill was the man of the match, as he followed his mammoth 261 in the first innings with a 161 second time around. Gill said: 'I'd say I'm feeling comfortable. I'm definitely comfortable with my game and hopefully with my contribution. 'If we're able to win the series, that would be a great achievement for us. 'I think the way we came back in our bowling and our building was tremendous to see on this kind of wicket. 'We knew if we get around 400 or 500 will be straight back into the game, not in all games we are going to drop that many chances (as they did at Headingley).
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
England slump to 336-run defeat in second Test against India with Jamie Smith shining brightest in bid for an unlikely draw on day five at Edgbaston
England crashed to a 336-run defeat in the second Rothesay Test against India as they were unable to dig deep enough to steal a draw at Edgbaston. For the first time in three years of the 'Bazball' era England accepted that a stalemate was the best they could hope for, attempting to frustrate the tourists on the final day rather than hunt an astronomical target of 608. But a team who have made their name as thrill-seeking fourth-innings chasers were not built to produce a day-long rearguard and were bowled out for 271 with 27 overs still in front of them. Jamie Smith was their best performer in front of a heavily pro-India crowd, following up a career-best 184 not out in the first innings with 88 in the second, but even he was unable to knuckle down for the long haul. He was caught on the boundary attempting to pull a third consecutive six, going down with a flourish rather than a fight. England's fate had been mostly sealed in the first session, Ollie Pope and Harry Brook both dismissed in the first half-hour to leave the hosts 83 for five and Ben Stokes lbw to the last ball before lunch. Akash Deep took the plaudits with six for 99 to complete a 10-wicket match and India will be licking their lips at the prospect of pairing him with Jasprit Bumrah at Lord's in next week's third Test. Heavy morning showers pushed the start back by an hour and 40 minutes, though rejigged session times meant only 10 of the scheduled 90 overs were lost. That nudged England's required run-rate up to 6.7 an over, effectively removing whatever sliver of optimism they had about embarking on a world record run chase. Instead, the game was all about India's hunt for wickets. It did not take long for them to open their account, danger man Deep taking just seven balls. Pope had watched his first over from the non-striker's end but was removed at the first time of asking, failing to smother the bounce as he deflected it back into his stumps off his arm. He threw his head back in frustration, gone for 24 to follow his golden duck on day two. Brook enjoyed considerably better fortunes in the first innings, making 158, but he was sent on his way in Deep's next over as the pitch began to offer some serious assistance. Targeting a sizeable crack just short of a good length, the seamer hit the jackpot as the ball jagged back dramatically and pinned a wrongfooted Brook on the inside of the knee. DRS upheld the umpire's lbw decision as Brook limped away beaten and bruised. Deep could easily have taken a third in a consistently menacing opening spell, Stokes just escaping a drag-on and Smith's stumps somehow surviving two near misses in four balls. The pair rallied for a workmanlike partnership worth 70, but India reaped the rewards of hustling one extra over before lunch. Ravindra Jadeja looked to be bowling the last over but dashed through it so quickly there was time for another. Washington Sundar used it to decisive effect, beat Stokes' flat-bat defence and striking him clean in front for 33. Batting looked increasingly treacherous as India used spin at both ends at the start of the afternoon session but attacking fields allowed Smith to score briskly on his way to another half-century. He took 17 off a single over from Sundar, including two hearty blows for six and a guided edge for four, to hasten the return of the quick men. The switch proved costly for Chris Woakes, who was tempted into pulling Prasidh Krishna and skied a top-edge up in the air. India prodded Smith's ego by asking Deep to bowl bouncers at him and, while the first two sailed into the stands, he shovelled the third into Sundar's hands. Number 10 Josh Tongue was expertly caught by Mohammed Siraj and Brydon Carse thrashed 38 before skying Deep to India captain Shubman Gill, whose magnificent match haul of 430 runs paved the way for his side.
