Cricket news round-up – 28 May: Australia, England win warm-ups, century for Cook in County

Australia and England had easy wins in their last warm-up matches before the World Cup. Sir Alastair Cook scored a century for Essex. India-A thrashed Sri Lanka-A for an innings victory.

Easy win for Australia

Australia beat Sri Lanka by 5 wickets in their final warm-up match as Starc and Cummins provided a tight start for Australia. The pace bowling duo finished with 61 runs and 2 wickets in their combined 17 overs. Australia used 6 other bowlers including Steve Smith and Adam Zampa (2/39) emerged as the most successful. For Sri Lanka, Lahiru Thirimanne (56) at the top and Dhananjaya de Silva (43) made a meaningful contribution as they finished with 239/8.

For Australia, Usman Khawaja anchored the chase with 89 whereas Shaun Marsh, Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis all contributed with thirty plus scores. Jeffrey Vandersay took 2 wickets with his leg break.

England beat Afghanistan

England produced even more dominating performance to thrash Afghanistan with a 9-wicket victory. England opted to bowl and Afghanistan were 92 for 8 soon. Mohammad Nabi’s 44 and Dawlat Zadran’s 20 somehow took them to 160 in the 39^th over. For England, apart from 2 run outs, 3 wickets each for Jofra Archer and Joe Root helped.

In response, England made a light work of the chase as they reached the target in 17.3 overs with 9 wickets in hand. Jason Roy remained unbeaten with 89 of 46 balls with 11 fours and 4 sixes. Bairstow and Root scored 39 and 29* respectively.

World Cup updates

Mark Wood got an all-clear for his ankle injury as the scans revealed no serious concern for his troublesome left ankle. Although he did not play England’s second warm-up game against Afghanistan but will be in consideration for England’s opening match on Thursday.

Both Kedar Jadhav and Vijay Shankar were back in the nets for India and looked comfortable. They can take part in India’s final warm-up match against Bangladesh at the Oval.

Tom Latham is also making a good recovery from the finger injury sustained against Australia earlier this month. However, his participation in New Zealand’s opening World Cup match is still under the cloud.

County Updates

Alastair Cook celebrated his 100^th first-class match for Essex with a fine 125 against Kent before getting run out only for the 3^rd time in his first-class career. At stumps, Essex were 300 up with 2 wickets in hand.

David Willey returned to Yorkshire team after getting discarded from the World Cup squad and scored 34 before being one of the five victims of Fidel Edwards (5/49). Hampshire restricted Yorkshire for 181 and then lost their 1^st wicket to finish the day with 14/1.

Warwickshire batted well on a damp Edgbaston pitch against Surrey to score 275 for 8 on day one. Liam Norwell and Sam Hain contributed for them whereas Matt Dunn was peak of the Surrey bowlers for his 3/59.

Lancashire ended the day with 47/2 after bowling out Gloucestershire for 205. Saqib Mahmood took 4/48 and Miles Hammond scored a 204-ball 82.

14 wickets fell at Grace Road on day one as Derbyshire were all out for 139; thanks to 3 wickets each from Mohammad Abbas and Chris Wright. Leicestershire then crawled to 55/4 in 29 overs as the opening bowler Tony Palladino took 3 wickets for 3 runs in his 9 overs.

Middlesex were bowled out for 221 before Worcestershire finished the day with 64/3. For Middlesex, Dawid Malan ended as the top scorer with 45 and Charlie Morris and Josh Tongue took 3 wickets each. New Road saw fall of 13 wickets at the end of the day.

The Sussex versus Glamorgan encounter moved in fast pace as Philip Salt scored a century and Sussex took a lead by scoring 208/5 in less than 40 overs. Glamorgan were earlier bowled out for 186 as Chris Jordan and Jared Warner took 3 wickets each.

Commendable performance by India-A

India-A handed a big defeat to the touring Sri Lanka-A team in their 1^st unofficial test with a 3-day victory. India-A scored a massive 622/5 before declaring. Openers Abhimanyu Easwaran and Priyank Panchal set the tone with a 352 runs partnership on day one as Easwaran scored his second double century and career best 233. Panchal (160) and Anmolpreet Singh (116) also contributed as none of the Sri Lankan bowlers made any impact.

Earlier, in the first innings, Sri Lanka-A could score only 232 in 63.4 overs as Rahul Chahar took 4 for 78 runs with his leg-spin. Only Niroshan Dickwella could score a century and showed his class after surprising omission from the World Cup squad. Following on Sri Lanka-A second innings was over in 52.3 overs as Rahul Chahar took his second 4-wicket haul of the match and Sri Lanka-A slumped to an innings and 205 runs defeat.