Latest news with #Testcricket
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Sport
- Yahoo
Cricket loving Chessum eyes glory with an innings to spare
By James Toney in Melbourne Sydney has the Opera House, Paris its Eiffel Tower. Others have soaring cathedrals or beautiful bridges. Melbourne has a shrine to sport. Great achievements require the greatest stage, which is why wrapping up this series with an innings to spare at the birthplace of Test cricket occupies every waking moment of Andy Farrell's British & Irish Lions. History always beckons for the team in red, who stand on the shoulders of those who first made these journeys in 1888. Martin Johnson, who knows the thrill of victory and the pain of defeat on these tours, left the class of 2025 under no illusions about what they could achieve when he presented jerseys to the team this week. He was the last captain to guide his team to victory with a match to spare, on the South Africa tour in 1997. 'It's about small margins in big games,' he told a hushed room, And they don't come much bigger than a near six-figure crowd under the towering lights of a stadium that locals simply call 'the G'.' Ollie Chessum makes his Lions Test debut in Melbourne, one of three changes to the team that beat the Wallabies by eight points in Brisbane. Replacing the Irish enforcer Joe McCarthy in the second row, his brief will be to meet the expected increase in Australian physicality and match it. With both parents standing at over six feet tall, Chessum was always going to be a giant. Yet the speed at which he has shot through the ranks at Leicester Tigers, England and now the British & Irish Lions is a growth spurt of a very different kind. From Newark to Nottingham and Sleaford to Melbourne, it has been a meteoric rise for the 24-year-old, whose first sporting love was cricket. This isn't the Boxing Day Test, but Chessum is ready to deliver a knockout blow. 'You sometimes think, 'How on earth did I get here?' but you've got to believe in what you are doing,' he said. 'Australia are going to draw on every emotional aspect of this game that they can. They are at the MCG, in front of their fans, on their home soil, with the series on the line. 'This is where everyone wants to be — on the biggest stage with the chance to win a Lions series at an arena like the MCG. 'We know they're going to throw the kitchen sink at us and there's a real statement in the team they've named as well. 'Maro [Itoje] has said to us that what we produced last Saturday will not be good enough this Saturday. There's a whole different beast coming down the road and we'll have to front up and tackle it head on.' Chessum has formed a close tour friendship with Jac Morgan, who has played himself onto the bench with some stand-out performances, in particular his all-action display against the Queensland Reds in Brisbane. You can't go far in Melbourne without hearing a Welsh accent, and there'll be no louder roar should the Ospreys back row get the chance to make an impact. 'I'm really made up for Jac,' he added. 'When you spend time with him you see what a quality player he is — he deserves the opportunity for the way he's played across this tour. 'You can't say a bad word about him, even if he's hard to understand half the time.'
Yahoo
16-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
England docked two points for slow over rate
England have slipped to third in the World Test Championship standings after being docked two points for their slow over rate in the Test victory against India at Lord's. Ben Stokes' side beat India by 22 runs during the third Test on Monday to take a 2-1 series lead. Advertisement However, England's slow over rate infuriated their opponents. In a five-day Test, 90 overs are scheduled for each day and teams can be punished for failing to bowl 15 overs in an hour. On day two of the Test when India closed 145-3, 72.3 overs were bowled - resulting in 15 overs being lost altogether from the match due to slow play. Match referee Richie Richardson ruled that England, even with time allowances taken into account, were two overs short of the target. Captain Stokes accepted the verdict, with the England team being docked 10% of their match fee as a result. "In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined five per cent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time," the ICC said in statement. Advertisement The docked points mean England have dropped from second to third in the World Test Championship standings, with Sri Lanka moving into second. It is not the first time this year England have been punished for their slow over rate. England were docked 22 points during the 2023-25 cycle. Stokes argued his team were at a disadvantage due to their use of pace bowlers - who require longer run-ups. The fourth Test between England and India begins at Lord's on 23 July. What are the rules? Ninety overs are scheduled for each day in a five-day Test match. To prevent teams tactically wasting time to ensure a draw, all of the overs must be bowled on the fifth day barring interruptions for the weather but, on the previous days, the overs must be fitted into the six hours of play, with an extra half-hour made available at the end of the day. Advertisement While time can be made up for overs lost to the weather, there is no such provision when the reason is simply slow play. If overs are not bowled in that time they are lost from the match. There are some penalties already in place in the International Cricket Council's playing conditions but they have a limited impact. An umpire can, after an initial warning, award five penalty runs to an opposition if one team is deemed to be wasting time. This rule has never been enforced in Test cricket.
BBC News
16-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
England docked two points for slow over rate
England have slipped to third in the World Test Championship standings after being docked two points for their slow over rate in the Test victory against India at Lord's. Ben Stokes' side beat India by 22 runs during the third Test on Monday to take a 2-1 series lead. However, England's slow over rate infuriated their opponents. In a five-day Test, 90 overs are scheduled for each day and teams can be punished for failing to bowl 15 overs in an hour. On day two of the Test when India closed 145-3, 72.3 overs were bowled - resulting in 15 overs being lost altogether from the match due to slow play. Match referee Richie Richardson ruled that England, even with time allowances taken into account, were two overs short of the target. Captain Stokes accepted the verdict, with the England team being docked 10% of their match fee as a result."In accordance with Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to minimum over-rate offences, players are fined five per cent of their match fee for every over their side fails to bowl in the allotted time," the ICC said in docked points mean England have dropped from second to third in the World Test Championship standings, with Sri Lanka moving into is not the first time this year England have been punished for their slow over were docked 22 points during the 2023-25 cycle. Stokes argued his team were at a disadvantage due to their use of pace bowlers - who require longer run-ups. The fourth Test between England and India begins at Lord's on 23 July. What are the rules? Ninety overs are scheduled for each day in a five-day Test match. To prevent teams tactically wasting time to ensure a draw, all of the overs must be bowled on the fifth day barring interruptions for the weather but, on the previous days, the overs must be fitted into the six hours of play, with an extra half-hour made available at the end of the time can be made up for overs lost to the weather, there is no such provision when the reason is simply slow play. If overs are not bowled in that time they are lost from the are some penalties already in place in the International Cricket Council's playing conditions but they have a limited umpire can, after an initial warning, award five penalty runs to an opposition if one team is deemed to be wasting time. This rule has never been enforced in Test cricket.
Times
15-07-2025
- Sport
- Times
Snarling Archer delivers pure theatre with game-changing 92mph rockets
Jofra Archer was riled. The obvious demands of T20 cricket have inured fast bowlers a little more to the inventive eccentricities of the batsmen in front of them — indeed, Archer conceded a record 76 from his four overs at the Indian Premier League this year — but the rhythms of Test cricket, whatever Bazball might intend, are different, and flagrant breaches of convention can still irk. And, as we all know, Rishabh Pant breaks those rules more often than most, and he had just done so yet again, charging down the pitch and hitting Archer through mid-on for four. One-handed. On as sluggish a pitch as we have seen for a good while. And all with a damaged finger that had prevented him from keeping wicket for much of the game. All things considered, it was pretty outrageous, and it will have concerned England a little. If there was one player who could score quickly and so put England under real pressure on this compelling final day, it was Pant. Ravindra Jadeja was magnificently obdurate and calm in his unbeaten innings, but he was never able to take the game away from England. So just imagine what Pant might have done alongside him. But now Archer had a plan, and a swift response. Just two balls later he produced an absolute peach of a delivery from round the wicket, the ball holding its line enough to beat the left-hander's defensive prod and send the off stump cartwheeling. It was some image for the photographers waiting eagerly, and some moment in the game. Please enable cookies and other technologies to view this content. You can update your cookies preferences any time using privacy manager. It had been a brave decision from the captain, Ben Stokes, to open the bowling with Archer from the Pavilion End after Brydon Carse had been superb there on Sunday evening. Archer had struggled from the Nursery End when attempting to replicate Jasprit Bumrah's bounce off a length earlier in the day, bowling far too full, but the Pavilion End is his more natural habitat, as it is for all the great line bowlers, and though he was again too full initially, he was soon hitting the sort of length that defeated Pant. And his speed was high too. In the first innings his opening spell had been the third-fastest by an England bowler and here his first salvo was the quickest by an England bowler anywhere in the world in the past ten years. The ball that did for Pant was measured at 89.6mph, and, when Nitish Kumar Reddy arrived later, his first ball, a bouncer that whistled past his nose, was up at 92mph. Archer also followed through right down to Reddy and offered some words of advice, which was not the first time he had done that on this day of high tension and high stakes. He admitted afterwards that he was not particularly 'proud' of screaming at Pant — 'I was just telling him to charge that,' he said — but this was a Jofra Archer full of emotion, passion and relief at being back after four long injury-ravaged years. He had some words too for Washington Sundar, whom he dismissed with a stunningly athletic return catch, diving one-handed to his right, as he and Stokes combined to give England a wonderfully incisive and inspirational beginning to the day. It was pure theatre, and that is what Archer always provides. As Stokes said afterwards, the crowd's mood alters completely when Archer enters the attack and 'the feeling in the game just changes'. That is what bowlers of such high pace can do. There is always an interesting narrative around Archer, with some concentrating too much on the injuries and what is considered the over-hype, rather than the upsides of what he can bring. He can be frustrating, as Stokes demonstrated when screaming at him to show some more energy as he strolled in from long on during Stokes's unfathomably tiring ten-over afternoon spell. But Stokes knows Archer's value. He knows that England are a much better side with him in it. He is a game-changer, as the wicket of Pant proved. He is not at his best yet, simply because match fitness for such gruelling matches cannot be found in the nets or the gym, and his wait has been long, but he still took five wickets in the match and bowled 39.2 overs. The question is simple: as an opening batsman, would you rather Archer be playing or not? I know my answer, not least because his bouncer to a right-hander is so difficult to avoid. The injuries have understandably taken some toll, because it is noticeable how little Archer moves the ball away from the right-hander now, but the speeds are up, even if he wearily bowled in the low 80mphs at times in the afternoon and evening, and the threat most certainly remains. The match ended in curious fashion as a ball from the off spinner, Shoaib Bashir, rolled back on to the stumps from Mohammed Siraj's bat, but just remember what had happened in the previous over: Siraj had been hit on the shoulder by a nasty 88mph bouncer from Archer. What followed was no coincidence, as it was also no coincidence that England won with Archer back.
BBC News
12-07-2025
- Sport
- BBC News
What to do about Test cricket's slow play problem?
It has become an unwanted story of England's series against over-rates. A topic frequently discussed but that never goes 72.3 overs were bowled on day two of the third Test at Lord' means, including the necessary time taken for a change of innings, 15 overs were lost from the match not because of rain or bad light but because of the slowness of stoppages are undoubtedly a poor look for the sport but what has changed, what are the rules, does it matter and what can be done? What are the rules? In a five-day Test, 90 overs are scheduled for each prevent teams tactically wasting time to ensure a draw all of the overs must be bowled on the fifth day barring interruptions for the weather but, on the previous days, the overs must be fitted into the six hours of play, with an extra half an hour made available at the end of the time can be made up for overs lost to the weather, there is no such provision when the reason is simply slow play. If overs are not bowled in that time they are lost from the are some penalties already in place in the International Cricket Council's playing conditions but they have limited umpire can, after an initial warning, award five penalty runs to an opposition if one team is deemed to be wasting time. This rule has never been enforced in Test cricket.A stop clock was also introduced last month where a timer counts down from 60 seconds between overs. Again, five penalty runs can be awarded here but, despite warnings during the first two Tests, neither captain was common are fines against captains and, in the World Test Championship (WTC) league phase, points the end of a WTC match various caveats are taken into accounts, such as injuries and umpire reviews, and a calculation is made as to how far behind the required over-rate a team was. The regulations state: "A team will have one point deducted from its points total for each penalty over it incurs."England were docked 22 points during the 2023-25 cycle. Captain Ben Stokes has pointed out his team are at a disadvantage because pace bowlers, with their longer run-ups, bowl more overs in the UK than other countries where spin plays a greater part. What has changed? The over-rate debate is not new. The number of overs bowled per hour has dropped steadily throughout the history of Test cricket, in part down to developments in the game such as umpire reviews, boundary checks, concussion protocol and TV advert to World War Two the average over rate was around 21 per hour. That dropped to 18 between 1945 and 1974, 14.3 from 1975 to 1999 and 14 since have taken a further turn in this series. The over-rate across the first two Tests was 13.3 per hour with 39 overs lost in the first Test and 19 in the second.A major factor has been the ball. Both teams have repeatedly asked for the ball to be changed because it has gone soft and out of shape. This has led to delays to allow umpires to check the shape and possibly replace the have been other lengthy breaks too. On day two at Lord's the first drinks break lasted around six minutes and 20 seconds, rather than the standard the high temperatures in London, there have been regular unscheduled drinks breaks and pauses for batters to change their gloves. There have been a number of breaks for minor injury treatment too. What have the players said? Both England batter Joe Root and India bowler Jasprit Bumrah were asked about the issue after the second day's suggested teams should only be allowed three attempts to change the ball per innings to save some time."I don't want to get myself in trouble by trying to rewrite the thing but that's one way of policing the ball thing," Root said. "In terms of over rates, it can be quite difficult on a day like today. "We're not used to this, are we? Thirty [degrees] in England feels like 45 elsewhere. But I guess just try and keep on top of it as much as you can."A point of debate is whether rushing through the overs would diminish the quality of play. Although time was lost, Friday's play was are also fewer draws in Tests now than ever before, meaning a result is still found despite the overs lost."It's hot out there," said Bumrah. "It's tough on the bowlers. "Sometimes you have to take your time because you don't want your quality to be compromised. You don't want to be too rushed." What do the experts think? Former England captain Michael Vaughan: When it gets to the fifth day you have to bowl the 90 overs. I have no idea why on days one, two, three, or four we see the game played at a snail's pace. On day five when the players and umpires know 90 have to be bowled they are running around, there won't be as many unofficial drinks breaks. I would make it simple. You have to bowl 90 overs in a day regardless of the chief cricket commentator Jonathan Agnew: I have spent 30 years banging on about over-rates. On the face of it is it boring but it is actually really important because it is just a terrible look. You cannot have up to 15 overs not being bowled. It is totally unacceptable. It is like going to the cinema, watching Pearl and Dean and then the lights go on and you are kicked out. Fines don't work. Now teams have time allowed for breaks but they should be penalised on that. There should be a stop clock for drinks breaks. Every time someone comes on to the field to bring gloves or drinks on a clock should start and that counts against that you have to impose penalty runs. It is the only currency players Match Special statistician Andy Zaltzman:The general play in Test cricket is really good but surely it would be improved by having more of it per is a clock between overs now and the only problem is players completely ignore it. You need an in-game penalty of runs against the batting or bowling side if they are obviously wasting time, maybe with a green or yellow card warning England captain Sir Alastair Cook: The issue has been going on for years. I am not blaming the players. It is time for the ICC and the umpires to step in. The speed of play is their responsibility. Drinks breaks need to be players you will always push the boundaries. A 10:30 start would allow another half an hour but would just add to the overall issue. As a captain the last thing you are worried about is the speed of play. You are aware of it because you get fined but the game is far more important for you. It is about winning that cricket commentator Simon Mann:We need a proper penalty to concentrate players' minds. You could have a run penalty but it is a little artificial. I would calculate how many overs the batting or bowling side is down - it is not just the bowling side that wastes time - and next time they bowl take a fielder off for two, three or five overs. Former England bowler Steven Finn:A run penalty would be better than a monetary fine. The problem is there are quite a lot of things that aren't the fault of the bowling team at all - gloves changed too frequently, treatment for minor is more complicated than simply punishing the bowling team and I wouldn't want the quality of cricket to be diminished by rushing through too cricket presenter and commentator Isa Guha:Slow over-rates have been a problem for a long time in Test cricket and I feel sorry for the spectators who pay good money and feel like they are missing out on action they have paid for. We can be a bit more flexible with the hours of play and start half an hour earlier the following day to complete overs lost the previous day. We are all here as broadcasters and it would be straightforward to communicate that to the spectators. That would be my solution.
