
England need 246 to claim ODI series clean sweep against West Indies
After arriving to the ground late for the third ODI at the Kia Oval because of heavy traffic in the area, the Windies fell to 28 for three and then 154 for seven, with Adil Rashid taking three wickets.
Rutherford had missed the Windies' defeats at Edgbaston and Sophia Gardens after deciding to stay at the Indian Premier League but he provided some much-needed ballast following their top-order failure.
After his dismissal for 70 off 71 balls, Motie (63) took the baton alongside Alzarri Joseph (41) in a blistering 91-run stand off 68 deliveries to lift the Windies to 251 for nine – with England needing five runs fewer on Duckworth-Lewis-Stern.
A combination of a couple of broken down buses, a traffic lights failure and roadworks over a River Thames bridge contributed to the Windies' tardiness from their hotel three-and-a-half miles away, which – along with a 95-minute rain delay in their innings – led to a shortened 40-over game.
The tourists' practice time was shortened as play got under way half-an-hour after the scheduled start and they were quickly three down in next to no time as Evin Lewis, who was back following a groin injury, and fellow opener Brandon King miscued to catchers in the ring.
When captain Shai Hope was bounced out by Saqib Mahmood for the second time in the series, it seemed they could vanish without trace.
Rutherford led the recovery well, finding some fluency through the off-side while he was strong off his hips and put on 62 with Keacy Carty, before the Cardiff centurion perished for 29 shortly after the rain break when chopping on off Rashid, who then claimed two in two balls.
Justin Greaves was caught well low down by Ben Duckett, who put down two catches at Cardiff, while Roston Chase hung out his bat to his first ball and nicked to Joe Root, who also spilled a catch last time out.
Number eight batter Motie smoked Rashid's hat-trick ball for six but Rutherford departed when pulling Brydon Carse to Harry Brook, who took an excellent chance diving to his right at mid-on.
England's hopes of a quick finish to the innings were dashed by Motie and Joseph, though, with the lower-order pair feasting on some wayward bowling, with the hosts guilty of overusing the short ball.
Mahmood then Carse were both pulled into the stands by Motie, while Will Jacks was taken to task by number 10 Joseph, who top-edged to Matthew Potts at short third to end a buccaneering union.
Motie was then castled from the final ball of the innings, through his shot as he was deceived by Potts' back-of-the-hand delivery.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Southampton's sought-after starlet Tyler Dibling 'is training away from his team-mates' as 'multiple teams fight' to sign England U21 international
Southampton youngster Tyler Dibling is reportedly training away from his team-mates amid the uncertainty over his future on the south coast. The 19-year-old has been on the radar of several teams this summer following a solid debut season in the English top-flight, showing flashes of talent despite the Saints' historically poor campaign. The England Under 21 international has a year left - with an option to extend until 2027 - on his current deal with Southampton, who will seek an immediate return to the Premier League under new boss Will Still. Southampton have rejected two bids for the young midfielder from Everton, with the Toffees latest bid worth believed to be worth £27million, according to The Times. The club are determined to receive a higher fee if they are sanction a sale but according to The Sun, his departure may not be far away as he is now training away from his colleagues. The outlet claim that the youngster is working in a small group of players doing only fitness amid his uncertain future. The speculation surrounding their star talent has come at an inopportune time for the Saints who begin their Championship campaign at home against Wrexham on Saturday. Other clubs believed to be eyeing Dibling are Aston Villa, West Ham United and Fulham. Dibling is thought to be open to joining Everton, as he sees the Merseyside club as a good opportunity for his development. Dibling revealed in April that his Southampton team-mates would joke about his reported £100m price tag, with Aaron Ramsdale - who is set to join Newcastle - particularly taking great pleasure in doing so. 'Rambo loves it,' said Dibling. 'I'll miss a shot in training and he'll just go: "£90million! £80million!" as it keeps going down. It's all good fun. There's a few nicknames going around. It's all jokes. Nobody takes it seriously. It's just a number. It's all fun. 'I don't try to think about it and just try and go into train every day and work hard and train the best I can. At the end of the day, I love Southampton. 'I have been here since I was eight. It is such a great team and I am working to do big things with them.' Dibling joined Southampton at the age of six, before rising through the club's youth ranks and debuting for the first team in 2021. He has since made 43 senior appearances, scoring four goals and providing three assists. Dibling has featured for England at every level from U16 to U21, but is yet to earn a senior cap.


Daily Mail
15 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Taxman's guilt at being British: Fury as HMRC, which can't even answer your phone calls, allows staff event, held during office hours, discussing the 'Guilt of Being British'
Civil servants working for the taxman has come under fire after holding a seminar on the 'Guilt of Being British'. Staff at HM Revenue and Customs were able to log-in remotely and attend the session during office hours yesterday, prompting a furious backlash. It comes amid repeated criticism of HMRC 's performance, with hundreds of thousands of calls from taxpayers going unanswered every month, customers getting surreptitiously cut off, and general concern from MPs over the 'failing' phone service. Kemi Badenoch on Wednesday night described the session as 'nonsense', and challenged Whitehall aides to leave the service if they were not proud of Britain. The Tory leader told the Mail: 'Is it any wonder the public hate dealing with HMRC, now we learn the staff are being taught to feel guilty about being British? 'In government I fought to remove all this nonsense from the Civil Service. Under my leadership, a Conservative government will ensure public bodies are proud of Britain, not ashamed of it. 'We'll defend our history, not apologise for it. And if that offends the Civil Service's seminar circuit, they're welcome to go somewhere else.' The hour-long 'Guilt of Being British: Listening circle' was run by the HMRC Race Network and held from 11am until midday. It was billed as 'a powerful, interactive, and reflective listening circle exploring the emotional complexity of being South Asian and British', covering topics including 'the emotional weight of colonial history' as part of the taxman's commitment to diversity, equality and inclusion. According to a post published on the HMRC's intranet, the session promised to 'delve into themes of guilt, pride, and identity, offering space for personal stories and cultural insights'. Workers were told participants would explore 'the duality of identity - balancing heritage and belonging', and the 'emotional weight of colonial history and inherited trauma'. The internal advert said those attending would discover more about 'career challenges faced by South Asian women - barriers, bias and expectations', and learn how 'storytelling and representation help reclaim our narratives.' A dumbfounded Civil Service source told the Mail: 'This example of a work-time staff event pushing a highly divisive anti-British narrative perfectly encapsulates the nightmare that is Civil Service staff networks. 'Those focused on race and trans in particular seem to operate entirely without scrutiny, and attract large numbers of activist staff, intent on pushing their personal beliefs on their colleagues rather than identifying and tackling actual workplace issues. 'This is a total abandonment of the vital principle of Civil Service political neutrality and makes a lot of us very uncomfortable, but if you challenge these groups on their approaches you risk putting a target on your back. 'As is seen in this event, these networks also enable many people to treat the workplace like their personal therapy centres. 'So many of us are getting on with our jobs and we see colleagues holding listening circles to talk about personal traumas - it fosters resentment and damages public trust.' Sir Jacob Rees-Mogg, the former Tory Cabinet Minister, added: 'It is peculiar that people who hate their country want to run it. 'Perhaps I should offer a course on why being British is to win first prize in the lottery of life.' Joanna Marchong, investigations campaign manager at the TaxPayers' Alliance, said: 'Taxpayers are fed up of bankrolling woke staff networks. 'While HMRC quangocrats sit around in circles whining about colonialism, hard-working Brits are being left on hold for hours on end. 'Staff networks should not be funded by taxpayers and they certainly shouldn't be happening during working hours.' It is not known how many of HMRC's more than 60,000 staff attended the remote event. A spokesman for the taxman said it would have been less than 0.1% and had no impact on its call handling ability. Earlier this year a report by Parliament's Public Accounts Committee found HMRC answered just 66.4 per cent of customers' attempts to speak to an adviser, well below the target of 85 per cent. It said performance reached 'an all-time low'. Around 40,000 customers were cut off in the year 2023-24 if they were waiting for more than 70 minutes, without an explanation, and no callback option was available. The average call wait time exceeded 23 minutes, with HMRC saying it did not have adequate resources to meet telephone demand from customers. The report said: 'HMRC's already poor service to taxpayers has become even worse. 'The PAC is concerned that HMRC has degraded its own phone services - willing to let them fail, in the hope that people will be forced to go online.' HMRC's most recent monthly performance report, however, shows signs of improvement - 80 per cent of calls were handled in March, while average call time waits were down to 14 minutes and 44 seconds. An HMRC spokesman said: 'Events by staff networks should not be taken as reflecting the views of HMRC. 'An event like this would only be attended by around 0.1% of staff, which would have no impact on our ability to staff our helplines. We have robust processes in place to ensure our phonelines are well-resourced throughout the day.' It comes after the Mail last week revealed the NHS budgeted nearly £2 million for similar staff networks in the health service, many of whom hold 'woke' events for staff. They included an event on 'Embracing Asexuality', a talk on 'Embracing your Afro/Curly hair' and another on 'International Pronouns Day'.


The Guardian
15 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Viktor Gyökeres labours as Arsenal fall short against Villarreal and Pépé
New season, same old Arsenal? On an evening when Viktor Gyökeres was meant to announce himself as the solution to all of Mikel Arteta's problems, instead it was a figure from Arsenal's past who stole the show. At £72m – £8m more than they may end up paying for the Sweden striker – Nicolas Pépé remains Arsenal's record signing, a few months before Arteta replaced Unai Emery in 2019. Most of the fans who packed out the Emirates Stadium for this pre-season friendly will not have many fond memories of the Ivory Coast international's spell in north London, but he clearly had a point to prove here. Pépé's early goal and strikes from Karl Etta Eyong and the former Tottenham loanee Arnaut Danjuma sealed an impressive win for Villarreal, and left Arteta with plenty of questions to resolve before Arsenal's opening game of the season next weekend against Manchester United. Gyökeres, who is the headline act of a spending spree that could exceed £200m, looked short of match fitness as he toiled up front for 62 minutes. Only the introduction of the 15‑year‑old Max Dowman for his first senior appearance at the Emirates Stadium could lift the mood as he won a penalty that allowed Martin Ødegaard to make the scoreline more respectable. But there were more reasons to be fearful for Arsenal's fans as they aim to improve on finishing as Premier League runners-up for a third successive season. There had been a sense of anticipation in the late summer air as they queued patiently at the club shop before kick‑off, with several already sporting Gyökeres's new replica No 14 shirt. Having made his debut last week as a substitute against Spurs in their 1-0 defeat in Hong Kong, the Sweden striker is still playing catch‑up having stayed away from pre-season with Sporting as he attempted to force through his move. But he was included in a strong starting lineup, with Ethan Nwaneri deputising for Ødegaard alongside the new signing Christian Nørgaard and Mikel Merino in midfield. The match programme featured pictures of all six of Arsenal's summer arrivals on the cover, with Martín Zubimendi, Cristhian Mosquera, Noni Madueke and Kepa Arrizabalaga on the bench. Arteta used his programme notes to express his belief they 'will add quality and depth to the squad, which is what we are going to need throughout the season'. Arteta added: 'We know what our targets are and what we want to achieve this season – there is a big belief in our ability to achieve that. We have been very, very close the last few seasons and the whole team is going to determine whether we achieve that or not.' It was Nwaneri, who has signed a new contract this summer, who caught the eye early on. A cross from Merino that was meant for the forehead of Gyökeres instead found Bukayo Saka at the back post and he could not direct the ball on target. But with only Gabriel Magalhães missing from his first-choice back four, Arteta will be concerned with how easily Villarreal established a 2-0 lead. Sign up to Football Daily Kick off your evenings with the Guardian's take on the world of football after newsletter promotion Pépé, who joined Villarreal last year on a free transfer and is set to be joined by the former Arsenal midfielder Thomas Partey after he agreed an initial one-year deal, was unlucky when his shot came back off the post before he eventually forced the ball past David Raya when Arsenal failed to clear. The Spaniard was left fuming with his defence when Etta Eyong doubled the Spanish side's lead just after the half-hour, although Nørgaard immediately pulled one back from a corner. Like last season when they struggled from a lack of creativity, that seemed to be Arsenal's best chance of scoring as Gyökeres was forced to live off scraps before the break. Mosquera and Zubimendi were summoned for the second half and there was an immediate improvement. Gyökeres finally had a sight of goal when played in by Merino but his shot was well saved by Luiz Júnior. It needed Dowman, who has been hailed as a 'special talent' by Arteta despite his tender years, to save some face after Danjuma had raced clear to make it 3-1, although Madueke missed the decisive penalty in a post‑match shootout.