Cricket news round-up – 6 August: Steyn, McCullum retire; Australia go one up

On Monday, Dale Steyn announced his retirement from Test cricket. A few hours later, Brendon McCullum made his decision to quit all cricket public. In other news, Australia thrashed England in the first Ashes Test, at Edgbaston, while UAE went up 2-0 against Netherlands.

No more Steyn in whites

Following a string of injuries over the past three years, Dale Steyn has decided to call it quits in the longest format. However, he will continue to feature in limited-overs cricket.

One of the greatest fast bowlers of all time, Steyn finished with 439 wickets – the most for a South African and the eighth-most in history – from 93 Tests at 22.95. Of all bowlers with 200 Test wickets, Steyn’s strike rate of 42.3 is the best in history.

Baz calls it quits as well

Brendon McCullum will not play any form of cricket after the ongoing 2019 Global T20 Canada, where he is currently playing for Toronto Nationals. Interestingly, McCullum and Steyn were both supposed to play for Glasgow Giants in the upcoming Euro T20 Slam.

McCullum had last played for – and led – New Zealand in 2016, almost a year after leading them to a World Cup final for the first time. Since then he was a regular feature in franchise-based T20 leagues across the world, including Chennai Super Kings, Royal Challengers Bangalore, Brisbane Heat, Lahore Qalandars, and Trinbago Knight Riders.

He finished with 9,922 runs at a strike rate of 136 from 370 T20s along with 177 dismissals.

Australia win at Edgbaston

Australia crushed England in the latter’s usually unbreachable venue of Edgbaston. Resuming at 13 without loss, England had to bat out the entire day to save the Test. They lasted a mere 45.3 overs to lose by 251 runs.

England seemed to have been in control of some sort at 60/1 when Jason Roy and Joe Root were at the crease, but Nathan Lyon (6/49) struck thrice to reduce them to 82/4 before lunch.

Pat Cummins (4/32) tore through the middle order after lunch. Barring Chris Woakes, whose 37 was the top score of the innings, no one from positions 5 to 11 scored more than 6.

The second Test of The Ashes will begin on August 14, at Lord’s.

UAE take unassailable lead

UAE went 2-0 up in the 4-T20I series in Netherlands with a 5-wicket win at Amstelveen. Rohan Mustafa (4-0-27-3) and Zahoor Khan (4-0-20-2) restricted Netherlands to 136/9 after UAE opted to field. Ben Cooper top scored with a 38-ball 46.

UAE were under some sort of pressure at 58/3 before Rameez Shahzad (49 in 41) and Muhammad Usman (34 in 31) added 59. UAE needed 13 off the last 10 balls when Muhammad Boota pulled Sikander Zulfiqar for six to seal the match.

The third T20I will be played at the same ground today.