Latest news with #SaqibMahmood
BBC News
07-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Lancashire's Croft questions 'stupid' schedule
Lancashire interim head coach Steven Croft has questioned county cricket's schedule following back-to-back T20 Blast Lightning played Northamptonshire Steelbacks away on Friday night and only arrived back to their Emirates Old Trafford base at 3:45am because of motorway hold-ups. Less less than 12 hours later, they were back in action at home to Derbyshire Falcons on Saturday managed to win both games to move to the top of North Group, but Liam Livingstone and Saqib Mahmood picked up injuries."It was a bit of a late one, I think we probably got into bed at half four," Croft told BBC Radio Lancashire."They're some of the world's best players and I think to ask them to get out there within 11 hours of a game finishing, it feels pretty stupid and silly." The two games were the start of a run of seven in 15 days to complete Lancashire's T20 group have further fixtures on Wednesday, Friday and Sunday before finishing with trips to Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire Outlaws next Thursday and Friday Red Rose are well placed to progress to the knockout stages, but Croft is concerned about the demands being placed on the pulled up during his innings of 35 and needed a runner, while Mahmood went off after bowling three overs."Putting the players at risk, we saw two players walk off the field through injury, which is never nice to see," he said. "But I think it's such an easy fix in my eyes and other people's."It's a bit of a bridge too far to ask the lads to go out with such a quick turnaround. It's a bit of a mess but it is what it is." 'Minimal sleep and quick turnaround' Cricket's domestic calendar is crowded with the Championship and the T20 Blast this month before August is given over to The Hundred and the One-Day everything in represents a huge challenge but Croft believes spectators will lose out if the best players are not properly looked after. "It's something that seriously needs to be looked at," said Croft, who stepped in as interim head coach following the departure of Dale Benkenstein. "One of those players might be off that field for a bit of a while and I wouldn't say that's all down to the schedule, but it's not helped one bit for that player who's walked off."Liam's hamstring might have gone at any time, but getting minimal sleep and such a quick turnaround to playing elite sport is a tough one."
The Independent
04-07-2025
- Sport
- The Independent
Saqib Mahmood hat-trick helps Lancashire to victory over Northamptonshire
Saqib Mahmood claimed a hat-trick before Phil Salt and Jos Buttler marked their Lancashire returns with fifties in a five-wicket win over Northamptonshire in the Vitality Blast. Northamptonshire lost their last four wickets in four balls to be all out for 177 as Saif Zaib's run-out was followed by Mahmood bowling Ben Sanderson and Lloyd Pope before George Scrimshaw holed out. Mahmood finished with four for 49 while James Anderson claimed two wickets before Salt and Buttler, making their first appearances for a star-studded Red Rose line-up this year, put on 123 together. Salt, who missed England's T20 series win over the West Indies because of paternity leave, amassed 80 off 57 balls while former England limited-overs captain Buttler contributed 54 off 42 deliveries. Lancashire had a brief wobble but Liam Livingstone's cameo 19 off nine balls was followed by Luke Wells hitting a couple of sixes to secure victory with three deliveries to spare at Wantage Road. Lancashire moved up to second in the North Group, level on points with Northamptonshire and leaders Durham, who claimed an impressive 49-run win over Nottinghamshire at the Banks Homes Riverside. Colin Ackermann's 83 plus captain Alex Lees' 77 underscored Durham's 231 for five and Nottinghamshire were all out for 182, with Kasey Aldridge, who had just one wicket in nine T20s, bagging five for 29. William Luxton made 81 and James Wharton 88 after former England stars Jonny Bairstow and Dawid Malan were dismissed for single figures as Yorkshire beat Worcestershire by 41 runs at Headingley. Will O'Rourke's five for 22 blunted Worcestershire's hopes of overhauling the White Rose with Ben Dwarshuis ' 42 not out off 17 balls arriving too little, too late. Hasan Ali's four for 22 led to Leicestershire being skittled for 154 and Dan Mousley's unbeaten 64 lifted Birmingham Bears to a six-wicket win, secured with 10 balls to spare at Grace Road. Ned Leonard claimed a career-best five for 25 as Glamorgan edged out South Group leaders Somerset by two runs at Taunton. Will Smeed's 72 off 49 balls was in vain for Somerset. Danny Lamb also bagged a maiden five-wicket haul in T20s to help Sussex beat Kent by 31 runs. Sussex posted 195 for nine before Lamb's five for 15 led to Kent collapsing to 161 all out. Ben Charlesworth struck 47 not out and claimed a couple of wickets as Gloucestershire, having posted 184 for seven, defeated Essex by 13 runs at Chelmsford, with the hosts all out for 171.
BBC News
26-06-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
Jofra Archer: How England bowler made his return to Test cricket
Saqib Mahmood is one of Jofra Archer's closest friends in cricket."With Jof the easiest thing for him to have done is just gone purely white ball," Mahmood tells BBC Sport."He'd have been financially better off and had all of that. But I could always tell he wanted to play Test cricket. I just knew it."Mahmood could be proven right next week after Archer was called into England's squad for the second Test against India. After an injury-ravaged four and a half years, Archer is back on cricket's biggest has been a story of cruel blows, hard work and false starts and one that results in the most intriguing question of all. Just what can be expected of Archer the Test bowler in 2025? 'Like a £100m signing – a cheat code' With the passing of time, it is easy to forget just how good Jofra Archer was in his first international summer in 2019.A World Cup winner and an Ashes weapon, he seemingly had it just 24, he was bowling knuckle balls in a super over to win a 50-over World Cup against New Zealand, delivering one of the great spells of fast bowling to Steve Smith against Australia on Test debut and swinging it around corners at Headingley to take six wickets and make Ben Stokes' miracle took 22 wickets in four matches in that Ashes series. By his seventh Test he had taken three five-wicket hauls - as many as Andrew Flintoff managed in his entire Test career."It was like what it must feel like in football for guys to go and spend £100m on a player and bosh you've got him straight up," England team-mate Chris Woakes recalls. "What was quite nice is other teams didn't know what he was capable of because they hadn't seen him."It felt like a bit of a cheat code. As soon as I saw him bowl I thought he was going to dominate international cricket because he is a serious talent, especially for such a young guy."But if Archer's first summer was the debut album that went platinum, the following winter was the difficult second two wickets came across two Tests in a series defeat in New he bowled 42 overs in one innings of the first Test, captain Joe Root said he had to learn "every spell counts". "You really have got to run in and use that extra pace to your advantage," Root had a new toy but were reading from the wrong instruction manual. An injury 'burden' Next came the injuries which have dogged the career of England's most exciting bowler for a generation, plus a cut hand cleaning a fish tank and a breach of the Covid-19 bubble after an unauthorised trip in Archer's right elbow on the tour of South Africa was revealed to be a stress fracture in early came back that summer and battled through the winter but the third match of series in India in February 2021 remains his most recent underwent surgery on the elbow that May, did so again the following December when the issue was not resolved and then sustained a stress fracture in his back in the elbow issue returned again in 2023, Archer's career at the most ominous of crossroads."I remember the 2022 T20 World Cup [which England won in Australia] me and Jof were both in Dubai in a hotel watching the final," says Mahmood, who was also out injured at that time."We were both a bit like 'we would love to be there'."When you watched the boys win a final and all of that, you don't have to say anything, but you just know, from each other's faces."Archer has said he felt like a "burden" during the absence."I've seen a few comments, people saying 'he's on the longest paid holiday I've ever seen'," said Archer."You try to not let it get to you but you can ignore 100 of them but sometimes that 101st is the straw that breaks the camel's back." 'Criticism gives him another gear' – the long road back The result was months of rehab, completed at Sussex but mostly back home in family, dogs and two parrots - Jessie and James, named after Pokemon characters - live just 150m or so from the idyllic Windward Cricket would be seen in the nets there, or at the island's famous Test ground the Kensington Oval. On occasions, Mahmood flew out to train with his England team-mate while both were coming back from similar injuries."He might not be vocal about it or he might not give off that impression, but Jof has very high standards," Mahmood says."We had net batters who used to come in and one brought a tripod to set his camera up."We were a bit like 'you what' and I could just see Jof as well. He just cranked it up straight away. As soon as you give him a sniff of letting him do something, he does it."England's management hinted at regrets in initial attempts to rush Archer back and have since developed carefully-laid plan, the work of England's elite pace bowling coach Neil has had a PDF mapping out every match he would play up until his Test return this summer - and an Ashes winter beyond. He has hit the vast majority to this playing only white-ball cricket, neither back nor elbow have troubled Archer since he returned at the T20 World Cup last year. At that tournament no-one took more wickets for England in their run to the semi-finals, while a hostile spell at Lord's against Australia in a one-day international in September suggested the magic was still is not to say it has been a serene return. There have been poor days and, with expectations still remarkably high, criticism too."People are just very quick to judge and they just go from one extreme to the other with Jof and I think that's purely because they know how good he is at his best," Mahmood says."He'll run in and he'll bowl 150kph and if he goes for runs, people will look at the runs and if he runs in and bowls mid-135s people will talk about his speed not necessarily his figures."It definitely drives him."He's the kind of guy, even for me, I won't joke around with."We always have a bit of a laugh, about each others' calves and all of that, and then it just ends when he says 'what's your fastest ball?' and then there's no comeback from that." Some of the loudest criticism came in April this year when Archer bowled the most expensive spell in Indian Premier League history – four wicketless overs for 76 bowling coach at Rajasthan Royals was the former New Zealand bowler Shane Bond - another who knows a thing or two about trying to come back after serious injuries."For anyone who has a day like that, it hurts," Bond says."There's no doubt he was hurting a bit. I had those days myself and your ego takes a bit of a hit."I think that's a credit to how quickly he bounced back. He was hurt but brushed it off and then just got back to it. He got back to the training ground, trained brilliantly, was really focused and knew what he wanted to do and had to do."Archer finished the IPL as the Royals joint-highest you exclude that afternoon on a flat pitch in Hyderabad, his economy throughout the rest of the tournament would have ranked among the best for pace bowlers in the competition… 'He still has an aura' – how good can Archer 2.0 be in Tests? The unknown question now is what sort of red-ball bowler can Archer be. Is he the same electric seamer that stepped out at Lord's in whites in 2019?"That pace and that hostility that he has are all still there," Bond says."You always lose probably a couple of kph at the top end when you've gone through that back surgery, but he is certainly fast enough to cause problems."Predicting red-ball form from white-ball results is notoriously difficult, some might say pace drops across his spells in one-day international cricket – interestingly not as significantly as it did before – but part of that is due to him bowling an increased number of slower balls at the more significantly, Archer bowls almost half as many outswingers in ODIs since his latest comeback than he did in 2019 – a delivery which is crucial in a fast bowler's counter that by saying Archer was never an outswing bowler. Another point made is that it is simply a result of his diet of white-ball cricket, where a pace bowler tries to give a right-hander as little width as possible."He starts just outside the stumps and it swings back in," Bond says."He certainly has the ability to turn his wrist around and swing the ball out, but I don't think you're gonna get a big banana outswinger."People get carried away with trying to swing it both ways like Jimmy Anderson, who was just a legend. But as long as he can move the ball, that's the critical thing."Bond points to Archer's spells with the new ball in the IPL as the biggest tell for Archer's red-ball future. There he would attack the top of off stump with pace and nip while putting the variations on the back burner, as he would with the red ball. "That's where he's extremely dangerous because he does swing the ball," Bond says. "He gets bounce and even in the IPL and on good wickets, he was generally knocking over good players and causing problems."That's the sort of player you're looking for in red-ball cricket."He also has that psychological impact because people know what he is capable of."Jofra has that sort of aura about him. When he gets it right there's something just unique about the way he does things."But the biggest unknown remains whether Archer's body can withhold the strain of cricket's longest captain Pat Cummins made his Test debut as an 18-year-old but did not play again for five years because of a series of injuries, including back stress fractures. He has gone on to become one of the all-time greats in the second part of his though, managed only eight more Tests after his back was fused with titanium wire in a bid to fix the issues in 2003."The biggest thing is the worry factor," Bond says."He's had the combination of back and elbow, so the biggest risk for both is that the increase in load and intensity and for both of those areas."I can't speak for Jof but for me that never went away with my back. For the rest of my career when I bowled I always worried that it might go ping because you knew the repercussions if it did."Archer's preparations for a Test return began in earnest after returning to Sussex after this year's bowling with a guard on his thumb to protect an injury that ruled him out of the white-ball series against West Indies, Archer began with one spell per day followed by a rest, then two spells and eventually bowling on back-to-back days in the nets, largely to Sussex bowling coach James on 22 June, came the moment Archer had been waiting for – his first first-class match for 1,500 for Sussex against Durham he took 1-32 across 18 overs – the most he had bowled in a match for more than four Archer described the day he returned with the ball as "the longest" he has ever had, but seemed to be referring to the lifeless Chester-le-Street pitch rather than the tiredness in his legs."He threatened the right-handers outside edge," former England bowler Steven Finn says."Everything wasn't coming in as maybe we saw in the white-ball cricket."What I saw was the ball holding its line to right-handed batters, which is a really positive sign to see his wrist right behind the ball."It wouldn't be possible for that to happen if it wasn't."That England have opted to recall Archer after only one innings – Sussex did not bowl in the second innings of the Durham draw – shows how highly they rate him."I just think he's one of those bowlers, and there's not many, who you get generally excited about watching," Bond says."Whether it be [India bowler Jasprit] Bumrah or Jofra, there's a level of excitement because they just make it look easy."He adds: "Just temper the expectations."I still think it's going to be exciting to watch him bowl and I still think he'll do something awesome but just realise that it's never easy coming back from an injury like that."He's just expected to blow teams apart and he could. But it's just nice to be great to see him back in the whites."
The Independent
03-06-2025
- Business
- The Independent
England need 246 to claim ODI series clean sweep against West Indies
England need 246 to claim a 3-0 clean sweep of the West Indies in the Metro Bank one-day international series following fifties from Sherfane Rutherford and Gudakesh Motie in a reduced contest. 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.
BBC News
03-06-2025
- Climate
- BBC News
West Indies to bat first in delayed third ODI
Update: Date: 13:23 BST Title: Post Content: Ebony Rainford-BrentFormer England batter on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra Saqib Mahmood did really well last game. Harry Brook will be looking to use him early here today. Update: Date: 13:22 BST Title: Post Content: Phil TufnellFormer England spinner on Test Match Special There's a bit of gale going across the ground so there's going to be a bit of a swing. England need to go out there and assert their authority. Hopefully they can take a few wickets early on and set the tone. Update: Date: 13:21 BST Title: Teams Content: England: Ben Duckett, Jamie Smith, Joe Root, Harry Brook (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Jacob Bethell, Will Jacks, Brydon Carse, Adil Rashid, Matthew Potts, Saqib Mahmood West Indies: Brandon King, Evin Lewis, Keacy Carty, Shai Hope (c & wk), Sherfane Rutherford, Justin Greaves, Roston Chase, Gudakesh Motie, Alzarri Joseph, Shamar Joseph, Jayden Seales England are unchanged while the West Indies have made three changes with Evin Lewis, Sherfane Rutherford and Shamar Joseph replacing Jewel Andrew, Shimron Hetmyer and Matthew Forde. All three play for the first time in this series, with Lewis recovering from a niggle and Rutherford returning from the Indian Premier League. Update: Date: 13:20 BST Title: Post Content: West Indies captain Shai Hope: "It was a lot more competitive [in the last ODI at Cardiff], we definitely executed a lot better with bat and ball. I want to see the same today." On how his side can improve: "Just a bit more clinical with our tactics, take each moment as they come and executing our plans, be consistent." Update: Date: 13:14 BST Title: Post Content: England captain Harry Brook: "We're going to try and be as dominant as possible. We've got an opportunity to win the series 3-0. "[One positive from Cardiff] was Rooty' big score. It's something we didn't have in the first game, which was really nice to see. Hopefully a few of the lads can have that today." On England's unchanged XI: "I like the balance we've got at the minute. We've got a lot of depth with the bat which gives us opportunities to chase scores like the other day when we had a tough start. We've got a good bowling unit too. I'm looking forward to what the future brings." Update: Date: 13:11 BST Title: England win the toss and bowl Content: West Indies captain Shai Hope has called incorrectly and so England have won the toss. Harry Brook has said England will bowl first at The Oval, which makes sense given we can expect rain disruption. Update: Date: 13:05 BST Title: Post Content: Harry Brook just sent down a delivery in the warm-up, then followed up with a cartwheel. Add that to the vast list of the man's talents. Update: Date: 13:03 BST Title: Post Content: Well, that's the idea in theory, Matt. Traffic sorted, onto the next issue... we've got a decent chance of rain disruption. It's not raining at the moment - the England players are still engaged in a pretty lengthy game of group head tennis on the outfield - but the forecast has a high chance of rain through the next three hours. The possibility of precipitation reduces after that, but we're not entirely clear until pretty late in the evening. Update: Date: 13:00 BST Title: Post Content: Matthew HenryBBC Sport journalist at The Oval If you need to work your afternoon around the cricket, here are the revised timings: First innings 13:30 - 17:00 Interval 17:00 - 17:30 Second innings 17:30 - 21:00 All times are BST Update: Date: 12:58 BST Title: Post Content: England's players found their way to beat the traffic... Update: Date: 12:56 BST Title: Get Involved Content: #bbccricket, via WhatsApp on 03301231826 or text 81111 (standard network charges apply) Will the time for the commute be considered in WI's over rate? Should have taken the Northern Line! Nick, London Update: Date: 12:55 BST Title: Post Content: Matthew HenryBBC Sport journalist at The Oval For those of you Londoners that care about such things - I'm looking at your TMS' Daniel Norcross - severe traffic "north of the river" is being blamed for this delay. South London can breathe easily. Update: Date: 12:54 BST Title: Post Content: I just searched our photo provider for "West Indies coach" and have been offered snaps of Steve McClaren and Dwight Yorke, who were managing Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago respectively in a football tournament at Brentford at the weekend. Wrong type of coach... Update: Date: 12:50 BST Title: Post Content: Matthew HenryBBC Sport journalist at The Oval You'd be forgiven for calling this a shambles. The match has been delayed because West Indies were stuck in heavy traffic en route to the ground from their hotel 3.5 miles away. England have been here a while but the visitors did not appear at The Oval until around 12:40 - 10 minutes after the toss should have taken place. They have still not emerged to do some proper warm-ups. We're told the toss will be at 13:10 BST with the match beginning at 13:30. It could be raining by then. Update: Date: 12:48 BST Title: Post Content: Ah, so as I finished writing that, the West Indies team started filtering onto the changing room balcony, and we've been told the toss will take place at 13:10 BST. The match was due to start at 13:00 BST but that has been pushed back half an hour. Update: Date: 12:45 BST Title: Post Content: Look, we've all been there. You've hauled yourself out of bed, hopped in and out of the shower so fast the water's barely touched you, hurried out the door with your shoes untied and your shirt on backwards... but you're on time, you'll make it... Until you hit traffic. And that's what's happened to the West Indies today - their coach has been somewhere on a clogged road in South London. So we've got a delayed toss for the third and final ODI at The Oval.
