Cricket news round-up – 20 August: No Anderson at Headingley, Indians draw tour match, Scotland, Namibia register big wins

James Anderson will not play the third Test of the ongoing Ashes, at Headingley; the touring Indians got the better of the draw against West Indies A, at Coolidge; Scotland beat Oman and Namibia defeated Botswana by convincing margins; and BCCI announced the India A squads for the unofficial ODIs against South Africa A.

England retain Lord’s XII

England, 0-1 down in the ongoing Ashes, have retained their 12-member squad from the Lord’s Test for the next Test, at Headingley. James Anderson, who had hobbled out at Edgbaston with a strained calf, will meanwhile have his fitness assessed during a match between Lancashire 2nd XI and Leicestershire 2nd XI this week. The squad reads:

Joe Root (c), Jos Buttler (wk), Jonny Bairstow (wk), Jason Roy, Rory Burns, Joe Denly, Ben Stokes, Chris Woakes, Jofra Archer, Stuart Broad, Jack Leach, Sam Curran.

Indians get batting practice

Ajinkya Rahane, stand-in captain for the match, and Hanuma Vihari, scored 54 and 64 respectively as the touring Indians made a token declaration on 188/5 on the final day at Coolidge. Having resumed the day on 84/1 in 35 overs, they took another 43 to add 104.

The Indians bowled in short bursts in the remaining 21 overs as West Indies A finished on 47/3.

Scotland rise to top

Hosts Scotland thrashed Oman by an 85-run margin in an ICC Men’s Cricket World Cup League 2 encounter, at Aberdeen, thereby avenging their defeat earlier in the tournament. The convincing margin allowed Scotland to reach the top of the table: they now have a net run rate of +0.491, which is significantly more than Oman’s -0.385.

Asked to bat, Scotland put up 223/7 largely due to Matthew Cross (59), Richie Berrington (68), and Craig Wallace (53* in 49). Ajay Lalcheta took 2/35, Khawar Ali 2/40, and Bilal Khan 2/45. Then Oman collapsed to 138 against Hamza Tahir (5/38) and Safyaan Sharif (3/23).

Namibia go one up

At Windhoek, Namibia went 1-0 up with a resounding 93-run win in the first T20I of the 4-match series against Botswana.

Asked to bat, Stephan Baard (60 in 46 balls) and Nikolaas Davin (39 in 24) added 80 for the opening stand in 50 balls. Then Craig Williams (68* in 31) took Namibia to 193/4. For Botswana, Dhruv Maisuria had 4-0-23-3.

Gerhard Erasmus (4-0-16-2) and Tangeni Lungameni (3-0-16-2) then helped restrict Botswana to 100/7.

Shankar, Thakur, Axar, Pandey back in fray

India A have announced two squads for the 5-ODI series against South Africa A, which will be entirely played at Thiruvananthapuram. Shreyas Iyer and Yuzvendra Chahal, not be part of the Test squad in West Indies, will both play, while Manish Pandey, Axar Patel, Vijay Shankar, and Shardul Thakur are all back. The squads read:

First 3 matches: Manish Pandey (c), Ishan Kishan (wk), Ruturaj Gaikwad, Shubman Gill, Anmolpreet Singh, Ricky Bhui, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, Krunal Pandya, Axar Patel, Yuzvendra Chahal, Shardul Thakur, Deepak Chahar, Khaleel Ahmed, Nitish Rana.

Last 2 matches: Shreyas Iyer (c), Sanju Samson (wk), Shubman Gill, Prashant Chopra, Anmolpreet Singh, Ricky Bhui, Nitish Rana, Vijay Shankar, Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Rahul Chahar, Shardul Thakur, Tushar Deshpande, Ishan Porel.