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Brendon McCullum has written of the uninspiring leadership of Ross Taylor and how the tension and mistrust during his captaincy left the New Zealand team on the verge of imploding. In his book , McCullum has devoted a whole chapter to “the coup that wasn’t”, describing in some detail Taylor’s failings as a captain and the circumstances that led to the souring of their relationship, and clarifying that he had no role to play in the axing of Taylor as captain.The captaincy switch from Taylor to McCullum in 2012 is one of the more bitter chapters in New Zealand’s cricket history. The timing of the fresh revelations could not have been worse, with Taylor struggling for form on New Zealand’s tour of India. The team, too, has had a tough tour, having lost all three Tests and the first ODI by the time the book was released on October 20. Since then, they won one ODI and lost another, with Taylor’s drop of Virat Kohli in the third ODI costing New Zealand 148 runs and arguably the match. NZC’s manager of public affairs Richard Boock told the that Taylor has seen media reports but is not “rushing out to find a copy” of the book.After Daniel Vettori gave up captaincy following the 2011 World Cup, Taylor edged McCullum as the next captain after a “public” process in which both of them were asked to present their cases. In the book, McCullum speaks of not being satisfied with that process, and of how the public nature of rejecting one of the candidates was not good for “our relationship, or any team with the two of us in it”.The cracks first appeared on the West Indies tour of 2012. McCullum had been rested for the limited-overs leg of the tour, but an injury to Taylor meant he was sent an SOS to lead the team. This was also the last assignment as New Zealand coach for John Wright, who was struggling to forge a good working relationship with John Buchanan, director of cricket at NZC. McCullum made it to the West Indies in time for the third ODI, but he was told Kane Williamson, who had captained in the first two, was going to continue leading for the sake of continuity. McCullum didn’t play that game, but his introduction later made little difference as New Zealand won just one ODI on a tour of two Tests, five ODIs and two T20Is.”Either Ross was highly resistant to my captaining the team and leant on Wrighty to change his mind, or it was just an organisational cock-up by Wrighty,” McCullum writes in . “The rest of the tour suggested the latter, because much of it was a shambles.”Like Taylor, Wright comes out in poor light, but the appointment of Otago’s Mike Hesson as new coach widened the cracks in the relationship between McCullum and Taylor. In McCullum’s estimation, Hesson was seen as his mate whereas Wright hadn’t been seen as a big fan of McCullum. In the book, McCullum reveals he had actually recommended Australian Matthew Mott despite knowing his friend Hesson was in the fray.McCullum feels that with Hesson’s appointment, Taylor withdrew further; he had, according to McCullum, already been burdened by Wright’s failings as coach.”It seemed to me that, right from the start, Ross was suspicious of Hess’s motives,” McCullum writes. “So instead of taking Hess on his merits, Ross seemed already closed to him. I knew there had been a bit of talk behind the scenes after Hesson’s appointment, and that some were seeing a conspiracy.”It wasn’t a very complicated scenario they were pushing: that my mate Stephen Fleming had influenced the selection board to give the coaching job to my other mate Mike Hesson, whose ultimate goal was to replace Ross as captain with me. One problem with that narrative was that I had recommended Matthew Mott to the selection panel, but details like that tend to spoil a good conspiracy theory, and as events unfolded, it was clear that logic would play an ever-diminishing role.”McCullum still felt that Hesson tried to help Taylor revive his captaincy career and the sinking team, which had by now lost both the Tests in India too. “Time and again on what became a long grind of a tour, with changes of format and players around the core group coming and going, Mike set up a lot of meetings as a group, trying to provide the perfect forum for Ross,” McCullum writes. “Wrighty had never done that for him — the only opportunities Ross got to talk to the team would be during emotional moments in games, when he’d start yelling and shouting.”At these meetings, Mike would canvass everyone’s thoughts, and then try to hand it back to Ross to synthesise what was out there, tell us the way he wanted to go forward, put his stamp on it. All Ross had to say was, ‘Thanks lads, that’s awesome and this is the direction we’re going based on your thoughts. I’m the skipper, this is what we’re doing and I need you all to buy into it.'”Ross would say nothing. Not a word. What the hell was he thinking? I had no idea.”Ross is a reasonably trusting guy in most circumstances, so someone must have been telling him to watch his back. Whatever, he put the shutters up against Hesson. A quiet guy at the best of times, going further into his shell didn’t help — he’d surface with angry outbursts, instead of a coherent plan.”Brendon McCullum writes that Ross Taylor did not speak in team meetings, despite Mike Hesson’s efforts to facilitate such interaction•Associated Press

Matters only got worse as New Zealand spiralled from one bad performance to another. They finished last in the Super Eights of the World T20 in Sri Lanka, and stayed back for a Test series where they were expected to lose again. McCullum writes he and a lot of his team-mates became frustrated over the lack of leadership. He says Taylor’s “outside” support group seems to have told him all he needed to stay on as captain was to score runs, and that that was all Taylor focused on. He says many a player asked him to speak to Taylor because they felt they couldn’t approach the captain directly, but he stayed away from doing so because he didn’t want Taylor to feel his players were ganging up on him.”I got caught in the middle of the situation of a captain who wouldn’t talk to his coach or his team,” McCullum writes. “I was keeping my powder dry in the team environment, trying to be the supportive vice-captain, but behind the scenes I became increasingly frustrated as I watched the Black Caps spiral downwards.”McCullum says that in Sri Lanka he released his frustration by running from the Galle stadium to the team hotel, and by unloading on Kerry Schwalger, his personal mental-conditioning coach, through long emails, knowing the correspondence between them would remain confidential.With Buchanan flying in just before the first Test, a meeting that Hesson called for everyone in the team to put his thoughts on the table seemed to McCullum like one final effort from Hesson. McCullum felt Hesson would get the sack after the series because “the media and public were behind Ross”. McCullum says a frustrated Hesson had told him on a couple of occasions that he would like his captain to speak at team meetings, to take charge of the team. It didn’t happen in this meeting either. New Zealand went on to lose the Galle Test by 10 wickets.”The atmosphere in the changing room after that loss at Galle was awful, and I picked up on a fair bit of animosity towards Ross,” McCullum writes. “The team was finally imploding. I decided things had gone far enough and asked Ross to come into the dunnies out the back with me.”I said to him, ‘This is your effin’ team, mate. You need to grab it by the scruff of the neck and I will help you along the way, otherwise we’re going to lose our way completely.'”McCullum writes he didn’t know Taylor had been told before the start of the Test that Buchanan and Hesson were going to recommend to NZC after the tour that Taylor be relieved of the captaincy.It wasn’t clear, McCullum writes, at that moment if Taylor was being sacked as captain of all three international teams. When they got home, McCullum received a call, on his father’s birthday, offering him captaincy of the limited-overs teams. McCullum feels it is possible the powers had changed their minds partially after Taylor’s rousing performance in the second Test – 142 and 74 – helped to level the series in Sri Lanka.McCullum writes that he asked for time to decide. He was still mulling over his mentor Stephen Fleming’s advice not to take the captaincy – “Why would you do it? Don’t do it. You don’t need it” – when he received another call from NZC informing him that Taylor had refused to carry on as Test captain. Now the leadership of all three teams was there for the taking. McCullum writes he had only two options: take the job or retire.”I was carrying too much baggage now to hang around if someone else was captaining the side. Ross was always going to carry on, and the new captain could do without having me there too.”The problems, McCullum feels, began with the public selection process. McCullum was originally told in 2011 that the selection panel would be Wright, Mark Greatbatch, Buchanan and Justin Vaughan. McCullum went into the interview not trusting Wright, knowing of the connection between Greatbatch and Taylor from their Wairarapa days, knowing Buchanan was hard to read, and shocked by Vaughan’s absence on the interview panel. McCullum left feeling he had been set up to fail. “Within days of the public announcement of Ross’s captaincy, Greatbatch was a guest at Ross’s wedding,” McCullum writes. “That would have been a long, awkward day for Greatbatch had his panel appointed me captain!”And the fact that I hadn’t been astute enough to work out that applying for the captaincy wasn’t the right thing to do — and, worse, I’d willingly engaged in that process — proved I wasn’t ready for it. But neither was Ross. He’d made the same mistake. He was younger than me and, I believe, no more ready for the captaincy than I was. And he was just as compromised by New Zealand Cricket’s decision to have a public selection process. What happened next made us both a lot wiser — and certainly older — but it gouged a rift between us that will probably never heal.”

James Neesham’s last Test match, in Brisbane last November, wasn’t the happiest of experiences. Having just come back into the New Zealand side after being deemed to have recovered fully from a stress fracture, he continued experiencing discomfort in his back while bowling, and was ruled out of the remainder of the series. Now, close to a year later, Neesham is back in the Test squad, and says he is back to full fitness, after a summer spent in England, playing limited-overs cricket for Derbyshire.”The main result for me [from the Derbyshire stint] was I got through the whole season uninjured and basically had no issues with the back at all,” Neesham said, after New Zealand’s squad arrived in India. “So I suppose the aim now is to get the loading up again and make them good enough for Test cricket.”Neesham said he had worked specifically, while in England, on getting back to cricket-fitness.”It was more tweaking little things,” he said. “We did a lot of work on the rehab prior to the Australian series last year, and were pretty comprehensive on that side of things, but I think over in Derby it was more about, I suppose, finding what works and what doesn’t, and changing up especially the gym programme a little bit – basically making cricket the number-one priority as opposed to regaining the strength base and fitness base, which it was before Australia.”Since the start of his international career, Neesham felt his game, particularly his batting, had become less carefree, and ahead of the Tests against India, he hoped to return to playing his natural game.”I’m basically looking to go back to how I played when I first came in to international cricket,” he said. “I think I was a bit more carefree and a bit more, I suppose, , especially with batting, and then once you start feeling the pressure of international cricket and wanting results and wanting runs, it can curb your game a little bit, which I think is one of the traps I fell into.”So I’m just looking to go back to playing my natural game. It’s a bit of a cliché, but hopefully runs and wickets will flow from there.”Though he has visited India previously, Neesham is touring the country with the Test side for the first time. He hoped he could feed off some of the more experienced members of the squad such as Ross Taylor and Kane Williamson.”I’ve had an A tour, Champions League, and then IPL, so I’ve had three tours over here now, and you learn something new every time you come over,” he said. “And there are obviously guys in the team that have come over here a lot more times than I have, so I’ve been looking to glean some knowledge off guys like Ross and Kane, especially about playing spin and playing their spinners in particular, but I think, as I said before, if you play your natural game and have some clear plans about how you’re going to go about scoring runs, then that should hold you in good stead.”

New Zealand have taken major steps on the ladder to being considered a top Test team by winning another series in foreign conditions. Their 2-0 sweep in Zimbabwe meant they have only lost two of their last seven away series, which includes a victory in West Indies and a draw in the UAE. This result, coach Mike Hesson explained, is important as they look to improve.”We know we will only be judged a decent team once we start to do well away from home,” Hesson said after their series win in Bulawayo. “We won in West Indies and Sri Lanka, and we are getting better. We were challenged here in Zimbabwe with both bat and ball and India are going to challenge us in a few months’ time.”Hesson called different unknown surfaces “a great leveler” and Kane Williamson used the same term when he discussed how touring teams need to take on both the opposition and their conditions.”Any time you tour away from home, the conditions are so diverse that the challenge is not just playing a different nation, it’s having to make big adjustments to your game and your approach as a team,” Williamson said. “Those are challenges that are unique to the international game and something every side finds difficult. It’s a leveler as well because everyone is most used to their home conditions. So when you go away you have to adapt as quickly as you can and it’s not an easy thing.”So how are New Zealand working on being able to adjust their game to match up to changing conditions? “We’ve got enough experience in the group that players can talk about it,” Hesson said. “When we train, we train with a purpose. We’ve got a group of players that share ideas and learn from each other.”Of New Zealand’s current squad, four had played in the Bulawayo Test they won by 34 runs five years ago. It’s no surprise then that Kane Williamson, Ross Taylor, Martin Guptill and BJ Watling were among the top five run-scorers in 2016. They knew the pitch did not allow for quick runs and that they would have to show patience, a word they used with nauseating frequency in the lead-up, to build a total.The approach paid off. New Zealand posted two scored in excess of 500 and only rushed things in the second innings of the second Test when they needed to set Zimbabwe a total.The man who accelerated was Taylor, whose eye was in better than anyone else’s. “He is in an excellent space. A very calm space and technically, he is playing nicely,” Hesson said. “He is training very well and is just making good decision after good decision.”The best decision, though, was made by Neil Wagner. He banged in short ball after short ball on a surface that was not supposed to give him bounce and he stunned Zimbabwe’s inexperienced line-up in the first Test. Later, he showed he could work an old ball and find reverse swing, something that will be crucial in the subcontinent.In doing so, Wagner also kept New Zealand’s only seam-bowling allrounder Doug Bracewell out of the side. “Doug is competing with Neil Wagner. With Neil’s ability to reverse the ball, that’s a role we wanted. We thought Neil was the right one to go with and he had a very good first Test, so he got a second,” Hesson explained.Bracewell, though, will likely come into contention in South Africa, where pitches would be a bit more lively. Test cricket has never been played at either Kingsmead or SuperSport Park in August before, so New Zealand will have to adapt again. Bracewell, Matt Henry and offspinner Mark Craig could come into contention as New Zealand attempt to win a first-ever Test series in South Africa to continue their form on the road.

David Warner may yet miss both of Australia’s warm-up matches in Sri Lanka, but both he and coach Darren Lehmann are confident he will be fit and ready for the first Test starting on July 26.Warner missed the second half of the recent one-day tri-series in the West Indies due to a broken finger and he is expected to sit out of an intra-squad practice match in Sri Lanka next week. The Australians hope Warner will be able to play a first-class tour game that follows, but even if he misses that he could still figure in the first Test.”I’ve done it before,” Warner told reporters in Sydney on Friday, referring to going into a Test with no warm-up games. “I’ve picked up a bat and gone back out there and tried to play to the best of my abilities. Sometimes it comes off. You always want some time in the nets.”For myself, I’ve said in the past, less is more. I prefer to go into a lot of the games fresh. I don’t usually hit a lot leading into any series or any game. I just like to go in there and bat for 20 minutes or so.”The injury to Warner’s left index finger, sustained while fielding in an ODI in St Kitts, has prevented him from any form of batting for nearly a month. Warner said more than batting, he was concerned about how ready he would be to take an active part in the field for Australia, in his usual position in the slip cordon.”The biggest thing for myself is the fielding aspect,” Warner said. “I field in the slips, so I’m going to have to try take a handful of catches there to make sure it’s nice and warm.”Australia’s coach Darren Lehmann was equally confident that Warner would be ready to take his place alongside Joe Burns at the top of the order for the first Test. Shaun Marsh is the back-up batsman in Australia’s squad who would likely step in if Warner was ruled out.”He will be fine,” Lehmann told the . “He probably won’t play the two-day game but should play the first-class game – the tour game before we play the first Test. Even if he didn’t, I am not too worried about that. He is one of these guys who picks up a bat quite quickly.”He has had broken fingers and injuries before, and we have just plugged him back into Test cricket and he is fine. We would like him to play the tour game and, hopefully, medically he can, but if he can’t, I am not too stressed. As long as he is available for the first Test.”Lehmann is also returning from some time off, having stayed at home in Australia while Justin Langer stood in as head coach for the tour of the West Indies.”I am really excited to get back in the hot seat, if you like,” Lehmann said. “Justin did a great job and obviously had a good result in the West Indies. I think he summed it up beautifully, the way we have a bit of improvement to do in that format of the game.”

While other Sri Lanka batsmen have spoken of embracing positivity at the crease against a strong England attack, the youngest man in the top order has instead begun to focus on batting time. Impulsive, raw and attacking, 21-year-old Kusal Mendis may average less than 30 in 10 Test innings so far, but coaches and selectors have seen in him a spark that could be fanned into flame.Mendis hit Sri Lanka’s sole half-century in a woeful Headingley Test, and made two starts at Chester-le-Street. Sri Lanka appear happy to give him a longer run in the No. 3 spot, where he has said he feels comfortable and where he has contributed more substantial innings than many of his team-mates. Having hit 114 runs from 154 balls this series, the batsman himself has set sights on playing longer innings.”We have realised that the key is to let the England bowlers go for more spells,” Mendis said. “We will have a few plans and it’s only natural that a bowler, when he bowls fourth or fifth spell, he will leak runs. If we can bat for longer, we will be able to achieve our targets more easily. We have had about five very good days of training leading up to the Lord’s Test. We will talk about all these areas.”Sri Lanka had employed the “tiring” tactics with some success against Yasir Shah in 2015, when Angelo Mathews, in particular, had first dead-batted, then scored freely off the legspinner’s later spells in Pallekele. Mendis’ survival early in his innings here may depend on how well he can avoid the traps England set for his leg-side dominant play.”England tried out a few things in the second Test and I realised that,” Mendis said. “I know what’s coming at Lord’s. They will deny me any runs on the leg side. That’s the challenge. The coach and captain had a chat with me and we will come up with some counter moves where I will try and score on the off side.”Mendis was the captain of Sri Lanka’s Under-19 side in 2014 – a year in which he also earned a cricket scholarship to play in the Middlesex Leagues. He said he owed much of his success to his family – particularly his father, who is a three-wheeler driver by trade.”My father was the biggest strength for my cricket. Other than that, a lot of coaches and many other individuals have helped me. I get a lot of support from my captain, vice-captain, coach and the management. Even though I’m the youngest member of the team, they don’t treat me any differently. Whether I’m doing well or have a bad game I feel that support.”For now, Mendis has been weaned at the international level on Tests only. But his strike rate in the longest format suggests he could be an option for Sri Lanka in limited-overs crickets as well.”My biggest ambition was representing my country. I was thrilled when I made my Test debut against West Indies last year. Then I toured New Zealand and now I am here. I hope I will stay in the team for a long time.”

Hong Kong are set to host Papua New Guinea for three ODIs in the first week of November in Mong Kok, which hosted its first international match earlier this year. The games are scheduled for November 4, 6 and 8.This home series is wedged between two away tours for Hong Kong. They travel to Ireland and Scotland for three weeks from August 30, and then to Kenya for two World Cricket League 50-over matches from November 18.Head coach Simon Cook was looking forward to a busy season of cricket. “Our players are currently in a strength phase of their training program which is going really well so we should be seeing a faster, stronger and more durable Hong Kong squad leading into this really busy six-month period,” he said.Papua New Guinea had met Hong Kong on their ODI debut in 2014 and were whitewashed in a two-match series held in Townsville.Hong Kong director of cricket Charlie Burke was happy for the rivalry to resume. “It was only in 2010 when we met in Division 3 and since we have both emerged to register some excellent results [in the] World Cricket League and World Cup qualifiers.”The bigger picture is to continue preparations for the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers in 2018.”

Jhye Richardson’s hopes of playing any part in the Ashes appear slim after he only bowled for the first time since his most recent shoulder surgery on Tuesday, but he remains optimistic with the start of the Sheffield Shield season just seven weeks away.Richardson, 28, underwent a third surgery on his right bowling shoulder in January in a bid to end the repeated dislocations he was suffering and also put himself in the frame to be fully fit for the Ashes series which starts on November 21.He has not played Test cricket since the last Ashes series in Australia when he took his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests to seal victory in Adelaide. He has had a torrid run with injury since then, including having hamstring surgery in 2024, and has also dealt with mental health issues. He has played just four first-class matches since his last Test, with his his most recent coming in November last year when he dislocated his shoulder while high-fiving a team-mate.Related

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Speaking in Perth on Wednesday at an event to mark 100 days to go before the Perth Ashes Test, Richardson revealed he bowled for the first time the day before but conceded the Ashes were a long way off.”Some were good, some were bad and some hit the side net and things like that. I was a little bit rusty but it’s good signs,” Richardson said. “We’re hitting the milestones that we planned out at the start and while it has been really slow, things are looking good.”As nice as it would be [to play in the Ashes], there is a lot of water to go under the bridge before then. We’re not counting out Ashes cricket, but there’s a long process that has started and has been ongoing and there is a lot to go through before then. Things are looking good for the summer and I should be up and ready to go.”However, Richardson could not definitely say when he would be able to return to play for Western Australia in the Sheffield Shield but he hoped he could feature in some domestic cricket before the start of the Ashes. WA’s first One-Day Cup match is on September 21 before a tantalising opening Shield match against New South Wales at the WACA ground that will feature Sam Konstas and possibly Cameron Green if he is rested from Australia’s T20I series in New Zealand in order to bowl for the first-time in red-ball cricket after a long layoff following his back injury.Jhye Richardson speaks to the media in Perth to mark 100 days until the Ashes•Getty Images

“These are still ongoing conversations,” Richardson said. “Things that you don’t necessarily plan for can pop up, you can plateau a little bit in terms of progress.”Shield cricket is definitely on the radar, whether it’s game one, two, three, four, five, six, whichever it is, I’m hoping there will be some Shield cricket at some stage and hopefully some cricket for Fremantle and some second XI cricket amongst that as well.””I think white-ball cricket is always good to build the loads for red-ball cricket. We know that bowling 10 overs at high intensity really helps. And match time is something that you can’t necessarily get in the nets. We know that that intensity is going to be important, so I’d say there’d be some white-ball cricket.”Even if Richardson were fit, he would remain behind Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Scott Boland in the pecking order. But the lure of his red-ball skills are so strong that Australia’s selectors added him to the squad for the Melbourne and Sydney Tests against India last summer when Hazlewood was injured, despite clear issues with his shoulder following his only first-class game that summer.Jhye Richardson dislocated his shoulder in his last first-class game last November•Getty Images

The age profile of Australia’s current quartet and the next best red-ball options beyond them is partly why Richardson is so alluring. Recent Test squad members Sean Abbott, 33, and Brendan Doggett, 31, would be seen as more short-term prospects for Australia’s Test side if and when any of the incumbent quartet finish up. Michael Neser remains a ready-made replacement for the upcoming summer but is 35 and injured his hamstring badly last summer.Lance Morris, 27, has long been earmarked as a possible long-term replacement for Starc as a Test strike weapon but he has just been ruled out of the ODI series against South Africa with back soreness which will also put his Australia A tour of India in jeopardy. Xavier Bartlett (26) and Fergus O’Neill (24) will tour India with Australia A but neither have the speed and x-factor that Richardson offers in full flight.The other major issue for Richardson is that he has been unable to fully contribute in the field for six years since his initial shoulder dislocation in the UAE in 2019. He was once a speedy live-wire in the outfield with a very strong arm but he has barely been able to throw since the injury and has often had to hide in the field because of his inability to dive with freedom and the fact that he mainly underarms or bowls the ball in. The latest surgery was in part a last ditch effort to get his shoulder back to a place where could throw normally again but he said that process would take much longer to come to fruition than his bowling.”The way that it’s presenting at the moment is that it is presenting stable, which is obviously a nice feeling after all the issues that I’ve dealt with over the last few years,” Richardson said. “Throwing is going to be unknown. We know that. It’s obviously a long process to get back, sort of 12-18 months plus to know where it’s really going to be at. But at this stage seven months post surgery, things are looking good.”

Durham 257 (Armitage 111, Windsor 55, King 3-31) beat Lancashire 168 (Fraser 3-33) by 89 runsAn excellent century from Durham captain Hollie Armitage led her side to an 89-run win in their Metro Bank One Day Cup clash with Lancashire Thunder.Durham’s total of 257 was supercharged by Armitage’s century, the first scored by a Durham player in professional women’s cricket, but three wickets from Alana King restricted the hosts in the closing period of the innings.Lancashire’s chase got off to a bad start as they found themselves 59 for four and they never really got going after that, with Durham bowling them out for 168 to continue their quarter-final pursuit.Armitage won the toss and elected to bat, but the hosts’ innings got off to a bad start as Lancashire got a moment of good fortune when Bates was run out backing up for 12.Armitage then came to the crease and played a delightful shot through the covers off the bowling of Sophie Morris, while Marlow played a tidy shot off her legs for four to keep the Durham total ticking over.The Durham pair were looking good, but a mix up between the wickets meant that Marlow had to depart as she was run out for a well-made 37.King then got her first as Mady Villiers edged a delivery straight into the hands of Eve Jones at slip for one. Armitage then passed fifty for the fourth time in the competition, with this one coming from 61 balls.Emily Windsor, making her Durham List A debut, joined Armitage and looked good as she launched a Morris ball down the ground for four.Lancashire had a chance to get the key wicket of Armitage when she mistimed a slog sweep off Tara Norris but Seren Smale failed to take a catch on the boundary with the Durham batter on 71.The attention quickly turned to a milestone at the other end as Windsor picked up her first half-century in a Durham shirt, with it coming from 47 balls.Windsor didn’t last much longer as King got her caught behind for a fluent 55, but Armitage continued to flow as she picked up back-to-back fours off Norris, but two quick wickets fell at the other end as King got Heath and Phoebe Turner was run out.However, Armitage managed to get her seventh List A century from 110 balls, but Norris got Katherine Fraser with the next ball.Gaur then got Grace Thompson, while Armitage and Sophia Turner were run out in the final over to leave Durham on 257 all out.Lancashire’s opening pair of Emma Lamb and Eve Jones guided their side through the opening overs with minimum fuss, but when Mady Villiers came into the attack that changed as she got Lamb, the top run scorer in this competition, caught behind for 12.Durham struck again to remove Tilly Kesteven for four as the Lancashire batter mistimed a cut shot off the bowling of Fraser and Thompson produced a superb diving catch at backward point.Lancashire’s poor start to their chase continued as Jones chipped one straight back to Fraser for 24 and the visitors were in trouble at 47 for three.Ellie Threlkeld relieved some pressure as she smashed Phoebe Turner’s first ball down the ground for four, but the Durham bowler struck back as she bowled the Lancashire captain with a beauty.Ailsa Lister played a glorious shot over the field on the offside for a much-needed boundary.Smale continued to tick the score along for the visitors, knowing that her partnership with Lister was key to any Lancashire victory hopes, but that partnership didn’t last much longer as Katie Levick got Lister caught at cover for 18. King failed to have the same impact with the bat as she did with the ball as she was caught behind off the bowling of Levick for four.Durham were on the brink of victory as Villiers got Smale LBW for 32 to leave Lancashire seven down.Kate Cross looked to offer some resistance as she played a pair of nice shots off the bowling of Phoebe Turner, but Fraser picked up her third as she removed Norris.Sophia Turner then got in on the act as she bowled Cross for a resolute 34 and she wrapped up the win, bowling Morris for a golden duck.

Tammy Beaumont’s 150 not out delivered a massive 275-run victory for England Women – their biggest winning margin in ODIs – and an unassailable 2-0 lead in their series with Ireland.Beaumont faced just 139 balls for her innings, which included 16 fours and a six as the visitors romped home with 33.1 overs to spare at Stormont.Captain Kate Cross, who returned career-best figures with ball and bat in the first game as England won by four wickets, took 3 for 8 from just four overs as Ireland were skittled for 45 in Monday’s game, their lowest-ever total in ODIs.Related

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Both players have for some time faced the writing on the wall that England have moved on from them in T20Is and that was confirmed when they were left out of the squad for next month’s T20 World Cup in the UAE. As a result, they are the spearheads of a second-string England Women’s side touring Ireland for three ODIs in Belfast followed by two T20Is in Dublin as the World Cup squad prepares to depart for a pre-tournament training camp in Abu Dhabi.Beaumont’s 10th ODI century moved her clear of Nat Sciver-Brunt and Charlotte Edwards at the top of England’s list for most hundreds in the format and she is now third on the overall list, behind Meg Lanning (15) and Suzie Bates (13).Since losing her grip on a spot in England’s T20 side – she has played just three T20Is since January 2022, bolstering a team missing its WPL stars in New Zealand earlier this year – Beaumont has scored a competition-best 118 in the Hundred and a double-century in last year’s Ashes Test.She revealed her latest performance came despite suffering mid-innings back spasms but, despite another defiant display, it wasn’t about proving anyone wrong.”That’s probably something about my character,” Beaumont said. “Since I was about four I got told I couldn’t do a lot of things and I’ve proved a lot of people wrong so I think it’s always been the way.”But I think for me now, I’ve got nothing left to prove in my game. I’m playing for me and playing for England and playing for my team-mates. I’ve broken a few records and whatever. I don’t have to keep proving myself. I just have to keep playing and enjoying it.”Nor did she harbour any bad feelings about being overlooked for the captaincy on this tour.”Kate and I are both real experienced payers and she’s done a great job so far,” Beaumont said. “It was nice to be included in this squad and hopefully mentor some younger players and welcome them into the England club as such. For me it was just about having a real honour of representing the shirt and coming over here and making sure we won the series.”Meanwhile Freya Kemp, who is part of the World Cup squad but was sent to Ireland to find some form after a disappointing Hundred campaign with Southern Brave, did just that, contributing 65 to a century stand with Beaumont for the fourth wicket.The 19-year-old Kemp struck two sixes in her 47-ball knock, her highest score in 23 appearances across white-ball formats for England. Then, having only recently returned to bowling from a lengthy back problem, took 2 for 7 from her three overs.Quick Lauren Filer, who was overlooked for the T20 World Cup, took 3 for 10 while debutant Georgia Davis closed out Ireland’s hapless innings with her second wicket as she returned figures of 2 for 19 off 3.5 overs with her offspin.

England’s upcoming T20I series against New Zealand could give the strongest indication yet of how England plan to line up at the World Cup in Bangladesh.Speaking from a soggy Southampton before the first of five fixtures on Saturday, England captain Heather Knight said that while conditions were virtually impossible to replicate at home, her side would look to play combinations and scenarios as though they were there.”All we can do as players is be as prepared as we can,” Knight said. “In terms of prepping the team, just little things like playing teams that we think we’re going to play in Bangladesh, that are definitely an option.”Regardless of conditions here, we’re going to have that mantra to try and prepare us as if we’re playing in Bangladesh and try things out regardless of what the conditions are here.”So we will see potential things that we’ll do in Bangladesh rather than necessarily, ‘right, it looks a bit green here, we probably would play a seamer, usually an extra seamer,’ we probably won’t do that in these conditions.Related

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“Obviously the aim is to try and win, but we’ve got a bigger picture with the World Cup coming up in the back of the mind as well.”It’s always a fine balance between prepping individuals but also trying to get your team balance and try a few things potentially that might not be conducive to the conditions here, but might actually fit the conditions in Bangladesh. That’s going to be the forefront of our decision-making as a leadership group.”If their recent sweep of three ODIs against the White Ferns is any indication, England may have the luxury of keeping an experimental mindset no matter what the pitch, weather or opposition throws at them.Having romped to victory by nine and eight wickets in the first two games, even chasing a target of 212 in 42 overs at a rain-hit Bristol on Wednesday looked comfortable as England eased to a five-wicket win off the back of Lauren Bell’s five-for and a 90-run stand between Nat Sciver-Brunt and Amy Jones, who both scored fifties.Knight said England were “pretty close” to knowing the make-up of their squad for the T20 World Cup.”There’s just a couple of spots that we want to get finalised and sorted,” she said. “In terms of what we want to see, it’s the way we want to play in Bangladesh, the skills that we’re going to need as batters and bowlers to be successful in Bangladesh.”Picking fifteens and picking elevens in particular is really tough at the moment. The girls are putting in performances, which is making it a lot trickier for us, which is a really good place to be. It shows the competition that we’ve got and the players that are performing.”We’re going to need that whole squad in Bangladesh. Someone can get ill on the morning of a game, so we’re going to need a squad where we’ve got enough back-up and enough players that can fill different places in different conditions. We’re close and hopefully we’ll be pretty set at the back end of the series.”Heather Knight says England are close to knowing their T20 World Cup squad•PA Images via Getty Images

Freya Kemp is available as an allrounder against New Zealand after a long spell playing as a batter only while returning from a back injury.Sophia Dunkley is also part of the squad after being dropped following a disappointing tour of New Zealand earlier this year. She scored 15 off 24 balls batting a No. 5 in her comeback match during the third ODI earlier this week.Seamer Bell enjoyed a breakthrough moment in Bristol with her maiden five-wicket haul, having endured a difficult period in which she was working on changing her bowling while facing New Zealand and Pakistan before that.”It was huge for her,” Knight said of Bell’s performance. “We had a little bit of a catch-up that morning and she was pretty nervous to see how it would go and she was brilliant. I think it’ll be huge for her confidence.”Sometimes when you’re working through those things I on an international stage, and on a domestic stage as well, it can be really tricky because a lot of people are outcome-focused. But ultimately we knew she would come good eventually, it was just a question of when and those things bedding in.”Going through that tricky period and having to work through it to come up with a few processes that are going to help her as well, a few mental routines that she’s now got, to be able to do that, I think that’ll be a huge learning for her going forward.”