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England opener hit with mystery sanction by Cricket Discipline Commission

Matt Roller22-Mar-2022Jason Roy has been fined £2,500 and handed a suspended two-match ban by the ECB, who released a cryptic statement that posed more questions than it answered on Tuesday afternoon.The Cricket Discipline Commission (CDC) – a body that hears disciplinary cases in the professional domestic game in England and Wales and operates “at arm’s length from the ECB” – announced the sanctions after Roy “admitted a charge of conducting himself in a manner which may be prejudicial to the interests of cricket or which may bring the game of cricket, the ECB and himself into disrepute”.Roy’s ban is for the next two England matches for which he is eligible for selection, but has been “suspended for 12 months dependent on good behaviour”. He must pay a fine of £2,500 by March 31.The statement made no mention of the action which caused a sanction to be made against Roy and, in a departure from usual protocol, the written reasons were not published in full.Related

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The CDC Regulations were changed in 2020, stipulating that written reasons for a disciplinary panel’s findings should be published in full on the ECB’s website “unless [the panel] determines for any reason that it is appropriate that they should only be published in part or not published at all.”Roy pulled out of his Rs. 2 crore (£200,000 approx.) IPL contract with Gujarat Titans last month citing his desire to “spend some quality time with my family” following his stint with Quetta Gladiators in the PSL.His county, Surrey, announced he would miss the early stages of the Championship season and instead take “a short, indefinite break from the game”. Roy is currently on holiday with his family in the Maldives.An England team spokesperson offered no comment.

The player draft will feature 75 overseas cricketers

Andrew Fidel Fernando13-Oct-2020The Lanka Premier League (LPL) is as close as it has ever been to being a reality. This, with a date now set for a player draft, owners lined up for the five franchises, and international cricketers willing to play in the tournament despite Sri Lanka’s strict quarantine protocols. So says Sri Lanka Cricket, as plans firm up for hosting the 15-day tournament during the Covid-19 pandemic.According to the latest announcement, the player draft – which will feature 75 overseas players – will take place on October 19, with the tournament scheduled to run from November 21 to December 13. In addition, four of the five franchises have found owners who are in the process of finalising their commitments, said SLC vice-president Ravin Wickramaratne, while the fifth franchise may have up to three bidders.ALSO READ: SLC hopes to become first Full Member to host T10 league with ‘commercial’ benefitsAnd although the Sri Lanka health authorities are insisting on a 14-day isolated quarantine for foreign cricketers and tournament staff, Wickramaratne said prospective players remained interested. It is hoped that some players presently playing the IPL in the UAE would fly directly to Sri Lanka for the LPL.LPL organisers also announced on Tuesday that the tournament would be played across just two venues – Pallekele and Hambantota – in order to simplify the set-up and for maintenance of biosecure bubbles. Colombo was not considered because the Khettarama Stadium is currently undergoing renovations, while Dambulla has been overlooked.Franchise T20 tournaments have repeatedly struggled to get off the ground in Sri Lanka. This is partly because the country has a small domestic television market, and also since the SLC has struggled to find a window for the tournament that does not clash with a more established franchise tournament elsewhere. This year, however, SLC has handed over the organisation of the tournament to the Dubai-based IPG group, and that seems to have reaped rewards.

Bowler Anya Shrubsole says England won’t change approach which saw them unbeaten in 14 matches before meeting Australia

Valkerie Baynes03-Jul-2019England will be seeking a vastly improved batting performance when they go into Thursday’s second ODI against Australia 0-1 down in the Ashes.A top-order collapse which saw England crash to 19 for 4 and then 44 for 5 proved the difference between the sides – with Ellyse Perry claiming 3 for 43 – the hosts failing to recover despite their bowlers putting Australia under pressure in a nervy, but ultimately successful, chase.England’s batting woes came down somewhat to poor shot selection and, were it not for No. 5 Natalie Sciver’s fighting 64 and tailender Sophie Ecclestone’s valuable 27-run cameo off as many balls, the defeat could have been much heavier. As it happened Australia won by two wickets with 45 balls to spare after making hard work of reaching the target.Alyssa Healy’s 66 was their only real batting performance of note as Ecclestone claimed three wickets and Laura Marsh two as part of a strong all-round performance from England’s bowling unit in which Sciver and quicks Katherine Brunt and Anya Shrubsole also claimed one wicket each.Shrubsole said England wouldn’t be making wholesale changes to their approach which saw them go unbeaten in 14 matches across all formats immediately before meeting Australia.”We just need to be clear in our decision-making and commit with bat and ball,” Shrubsole said. “There were a lot of positives from the game, despite the defeat, and I think we threw a few punches back – especially with the ball. We were excellent with the ball as a unit, Soph and Katherine especially were threatening and really troubled Australia. Hopefully we can keep that going.”Anya Shrubsole celebrates an early wicket•Getty Images

One England wicket which fell through no fault of their own was that of Fran Wilson, who was given out lbw despite replays showing the ball had hit her glove first as she attempted a sweep off Jess Jonassen. With no DRS in this series, Wilson left the ground in furious disbelief, while England captain Heather Knight later said the players would prefer to have the review system in place. Healy and Australian coach Matthew Mott also supported the inclusion of DRS.Shrubsole said: “One or two decisions were slightly frustrating, but umpires are human and they’re allowed to make errors. It would be nice to have DRS but it’s the same for both teams and it was the same in the last Ashes.”Going forward I’m sure DRS will become part of the women’s game on a regular basis like it is in the men’s and that’s obviously a step in the right direction. It’s come into ICC tournaments so bilateral series like this are the logical next step.”DRS was not brought in for this series because of cost and resource consraints, however it will be in place for every home England women’s international from 2020.Australia will also be looking to improve, particularly with the bat, and especially against an England side determined to do better.”We never really know when we’re beaten and we’ve made a habit of fighting back into games and that’s a good quality in this team,” Shrubsole said. “We didn’t really get enough runs – and it’s always hard to come back from a start like we did – but we took it pretty deep and that was impressive.”It did look as if we might steal the win at a couple of points but we didn’t get there in the end. As a team it was a really good effort to take it that far and we can take a lot from that.”The second match will be played in Leicester on Thursday, followed by the third and final match of the ODI series in Canterbury on Sunday. The one-dayers will be followed by a four-day Test and three T20Is.

Nick Gubbins, touted as an opener for England’s first Test of the summer against Pakistan, gave a wonderful audition for the role with an innings of 99

ECB Reporters Network11-May-20181:50

Nick Gubbins again advertised his England credentials

ScorecardMiddlesex’s England stars of present and possibly near future dominated day one of their Specsavers County Championship match with Gloucestershire at Lord’s.Nick Gubbins, touted as an opener for England’s first Test of the summer against Pakistan later this month, gave a wonderful audition for the role, before falling one short of a deserved century. Skipper Dawid Malan, a current red-ball incumbent for the national side, and England’s white-ball captain Eoin Morgan weighed in with 76 apiece – the latter in his first County Championship appearance in almost three years.The persevering Daniel Worrall was Gloucester’s standout bowler with 3 for 59, as Middlesex passed 300 in the first innings for the first time in 13 matches.Gubbins wasted no time making Gloucestershire regret their decision to forego the toss and bowl. He survived a couple of early scares, the first when wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick dropped him down the leg side off the bowling of Worrall when on just 17. The second shortly after saw him almost run out by a direct hit from Graham van Buuren, the ball ricocheting to the boundary for a rare 5.Gubbins’ cover-drives were a joy to behold and the opener was also quick to savagely cut anything short and wide. Sam Robson, perhaps fortunate to retain his place at the expense of Max Holden, by contrast looked edgy early on but found some batting rhythm particularly with some punchy drives through midwicket.The pair added 77 before the excellent Worrall squared up Robson who edged a low catch to Roderick. Gubbins though carried on unperturbed, hitting 10 boundaries in reaching 50 off 73 balls.Nick Gubbins works the ball away•Getty Images

Stevie Eskinazi proved a good foil either side of lunch before playing a poor shot to a wide one from Worrall, which Kieran Noema-Barnett palmed upwards before claiming at the second attempt.It was the beginning of an excellent spell from Australian quick Worrall who ended Gubbins’ hopes of back-to-back Championship centuries when the left-hander gloved a rising delivery to give Roderick a second catch behind the stumps.Sadly, for the visitors, none of Worrall’s team-mates found the same life or bowled with the same control, meaning Malan and Morgan wrestled back the initiative with a century stand. Malan, buoyed by last week’s century against Sussex, was the early aggressor with some stylish off drives, but Morgan caught the mood, hoisting van Buuren for a straight six.Such was the duo’s dominance it was a shock when Malan fell to the second new ball, trapped lbw by Matthew Taylor to a delivery which pitched and rolled along the floor – surely ominous for Gloucestershire whose earlier decision to bowl means they must bat last.Taylor soon struck again when new batsman Hilton Cartwright wafted a catch to slip and departed without scoring, and Morgan fell lbw just before the close to another ball which kept low from former Middlesex allrounder Ryan Higgins.

ESPNcricinfo previews the second one-day international between South Africa and Sri Lanka

The Preview by Andrew Fidel Fernando31-Jan-2017

Match facts

February 1, 2017
Start time 1.30pm local (1130 GMT)

Big Picture

Eleven innings into this tour now, Sri Lanka have one major question hanging over them still: when will the top order finally fire together? It had been ground down and blown away in the Tests, before in the T20 series one win was the outcome of Angelo Mathews’ heroic lone heaving, and the other the result of Seekkuge Prasanna’s late blitz – three of the top five having played decidedly modest innings, though Niroshan Dickwella did hit a fine half-century.Prasanna and Mathews have both gone home now, and the opposition are once more envenomed by folks like Kagiso Rabada, Quinton de Kock, Hashim Amla and Faf du Plessis. South Africa have sought to set the tone for the series with Saturday’s eight-wicket win, where their top order put on partnerships of 71, 60 and 54*. Sri Lanka are again in the position of needing to make a comeback.Some of Sri Lanka’s problems stem from the instability in selection while inexperienced batsmen attempt to find their roles. In the tri-series final in Zimbabwe – Sri Lanka’s previous ODI – their top three was Dhananjaya de Silva, Kusal Perera and Dickwella, in that order. On Saturday, Dickwella was moved up to open, de Silva found himself shunted to No. 6, and Perera had been shunted out of the squad altogether. Kusal Mendis – now seemingly the most bankable Sri Lanka batsman in Mathews’ absence – had been Man of the Series batting at No. 4 in that previous tournament, but has now been moved to No. 3 again. After being shot out for 181 in Port Elizabeth, perhaps another minor shuffle will ensue.South Africa may also feel they have their visitors covered on the bowling front. Wayne Parnell has been in penetrative form over the past six months, while Rabada and Imran Tahir are proven matchwinners. Perhaps their only worry will be the recent record of Andile Phehlukwayo, who is yet to take a wicket in four international appearances on this tour.

Form guide

(last five completed matches, most recent first)


South Africa WWWWW
Sri Lanka LWWLW

In the spotlight

South Africa’s marathons might be renamed “Imran Tahir wicket celebrations” in future, but if you have a top order as completely fooled as he often has Sri Lanka, why wouldn’t you race around the field for joy? In five matches against this opponent, Tahir has 13 wickets at 13.23. On Saturday he gutted Sri Lanka’s middle-order with three different deliveries. The googly weaseled its way into Dinesh Chandimal’s stumps, before the turning legbreak had Mendis caught in front of the stumps. A straighter ball had Upul Tharanga playing for turn that didn’t eventuate. Inside six overs Sri Lanka slipped from 86 for 2 to 102 for 5. Unless Sri Lanka develop a response to Tahir, they risk being floored by him again.On the opposite side, bowling wrist spin with the opposite hand, Lakshan Sandakan has made a promising start to his limited-overs career, just as he had done in Tests. There is an argument that for now, Sandakan should be reserved for Tests in order to safeguard his naturally attacking bowling style from the limited-overs disposition towards economy. If he keeps taking wickets, however, the selectors will find it difficult to be swayed by that contention.

Teams news

South Africa are likely to be unchanged for this match.South Africa (possible): 1. Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Faf du Plessis, 4 AB de Villiers (capt.), 5 JP Duminy, 6 David Miller, 7 Chris Morris, 8 Wayne Parnell, 9 Andile Phehlukwayo, 10 Kagiso Rabada, 11 Imran TahirIf the surface appears faster than the Port Elizabeth one, Sri Lanka may play an extra seam bowler in place of Jeffrey Vandersay. Lahiru Kumara could be in line for an ODI debut before he has even played a List A match. It is possible the batting will go unchanged, but Sri Lanka’s present top order is as fluid as they come in international cricket.Sri Lanka (possible): 1 Niroshan Dickwella, 2 Sandun Weerakkody, 3 Kusal Mendis, 4 Dinesh Chandimal (wk), 5 Upul Tharanga (capt.), 6 Dhananjaya de Silva, 7 Asela Gunaratne, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Jeffrey Vandersay, 10 Suranga Lakmal, 11 Lakshan Sandakan

Pitch and conditions

The Durban surface is expected to be faster and better for batting than the Port Elizabeth pitch had been. There is no rain forecast.

Stats and trivia

• It has been 15 ODIs since Wayne Parnell last went wicketless in matches where he has bowled. He has taken 26 wickets at an average of 27.06 in that time.
• Kusal Mendis has scores of 94, 57 and 62 from his last three ODI innings.
• The only time Sri Lanka have previously met South Africa in Durban was for that infamous World Cup tie in 2003, when South Africa got their Duckworth-Lewis sums wrong and failed to qualify for the Super Six stage.

Quotes

“We play Sri Lanka in the Champions Trophy too. Both teams take benefit from playing against each other. Facing their bowling attack, whether it’s the spinners or the seamers, you get a sense of what to expect for the Champions Trophy. They’ve got good spinners and they are a good team. I’m sure they are hungry to bounce back and we are hungry to try and keep our momentum.”

Mitchell Starc has been warned by Steven Smith to let out his frustration in other ways after he threw a ball at New Zealand batsman Mark Craig on the final day at the Gabba

Brydon Coverdale at the Gabba09-Nov-2015Fast bowler Mitchell Starc has been warned by captain Steven Smith to let out his frustration in other ways after he threw a ball at New Zealand batsman Mark Craig on the final day at the Gabba. Smith said the incident was “pretty disappointing”, and he noted that it was not the first time Starc had failed to keep his cool and thrown a ball in a batsman’s direction.The incident occurred in the 84th over as New Zealand’s final pair, Craig and Trent Boult, were holding off the Australians in their push for victory before lunch. Craig had just struck two consecutive fours off Starc and the third ball of the over was pushed back to the bowler, who gave away four overthrows by directing his throw close to the batsman and not the stumps.Starc was fined 50% of his match fee by match referee Roshan Mahanama over the incident, after he admitted breaching Article 2.2.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct, relating to throwing a ball at or near a player in an inappropriate and/or dangerous manner.”I thought it was pretty disappointing,” Smith said. “He’s done it a few times and I’m going to have a word with him when we get back down in the sheds. I don’t think it was necessary at the time. Hopefully he can improve and get better from that.”I don’t think he needs to apologise. I just don’t think he needs to do it in the future. There wasn’t an opportunity for a run-out there and I think it was just a bit of frustration. I think he needs to let it out in other ways.”There was no obvious apology from Starc to Craig, who at the time was still firmly in his crease and was some distance from the stumps. As the players left the field following Australia’s win, Starc shook hands with the batsmen Craig and Boult, but again there appeared to be no exchange of words between Starc and Craig.”I thought the game was played in really good spirits, and I’m sure the rest of the Tests will be as well,” New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum said after play. “We’re about half an hour away from having a few beers downstairs with them as well, so that will be good fun.”But the way I looked at it, I hoped he was trying to aim at the stumps. If that was the case and it just slipped out then so be it, we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.”The final day was also marred by a poor umpiring decision that ended McCullum’s run-a-ball innings on 80; he was given out caught at slip but the ball had touched only his pad rather than his bat. New Zealand had unsuccessfully used their final review in the previous over, and they were only nine balls away from having the reviews replenished at the 80-over mark.”That’s the game,” McCullum said. “Both Nigel Llong and Richard Illingworth are two of the best umpires in world cricket. They’re outstanding umpires who are allowed to make the occasional mistake. That’s just the game that you play and you’ve got to cop it sweet. We had two reviews which we used for decisions that could have gone either way as well. No regrets there.”

Ray Jennings has said that Royal Challengers Bangalore are missing the experience and skill of Zaheer Khan, especially in pressure situations, over the last few weeks

Nagraj Gollapudi15-Apr-2013

Batting worries nag Royal Challengers

Royal Challengers opener Mayank Agarwal is likely to miss the rest of the IPL campaign after he broke his finger while fielding in the match against Super Kings. Attempting to save a four from Ravindra Jadeja in the 16th over, Agarwal threw himself full stretch to his right to save two runs, but in the process dug his little finger on the right hand into the ground. Jennings confirmed Agarwal’s broken finger, which was operated on Sunday, and has been advised at least four weeks rest.
According to Jennings, the franchise was keenly awaiting the return of Indian top-order batsman Cheteshwar Pujara, who has missed the first two weeks of the IPL, recovering from a finger injury he picked up during the final Test of the Australia series in Delhi last month. Pujara’s fitness will be assessed on Monday and a call will be taken by the team management soon.

Ray Jennings, the coach of Royal Challengers Bangalore, feels that the continuing absence of Indian fast bowler Zaheer Khan with a side strain has affected the team, especially during pressure situations like the last-ball defeat against Chennai Super Kings last Saturday. Zaheer, he said, suffered a strain on the left side during the team’s first training session in the week leading into the IPL and hasn’t bowled since.”You are always going to miss any guy with that amount of experience because he has done it so often and he can actually handle the pressure,” Jennings said. “So, of course, you do miss players like that, any team would.” Zaheer was the second-highest wicket-taker for Royal Challengers last season. Zaheer’s presence was missed on last Saturday’s encounter against Chennai Super Kings, where RP Singh bowled an underwhelming over to hand Super Kings a last-ball victory. Against Sunrisers Hyderabad, another misfiring last over from Royal Challengers pushed the game into a Super Over, with Sunrisers’ Cameron White stealing the show from there.Zaheer has been struggling with injuries in the last few months and had come to the IPL fresh off a calf injury that forced him to miss the knockout matches for Mumbai in the Ranji Trophy, and subsequently the Irani Trophy. Not only was his fitness an issue but a loss of form was a big factor behind the Indian selectors losing confidence in him.Zaheer last played for India during the third Test of the home series in England. He was ignored for the ODI leg of the England series and then dropped from the four-Test Australia series. He did not feature in the 30-strong Indian probables shortlisted for the Champions Trophy, which is to be held in England in June.However, Jennings maintained that the franchise had enough faith in the left-arm seamer who, he said, was working hard to regain complete fitness. “Zak (Zaheer) has a lot to offer, and is always around the players helping them as well. He has worked every day in the gym, and has the trainer on his case to make sure he is 100% fit, and [that] the recovery from the injury happens soon.”This is Zaheer’s second stint at the Royal Challengers. His first came in 2008; he was traded to Mumbai Indians for the 2009 season and was bought at the 2011 auction by the Royal Challengers. In his 42 matches, he has picked up 44 wickets at an economy rate of 7.85 and is the third-best bowler for the franchise in the IPL.Asked if there was a possibility of Zaheer’s returning soon, Jennings felt the second half of the tournament was a fair bet. “There is no doubt. [The] back nine will be the business end of the tournament where we would need his experience, and hopefully he will be ready. At this stage we want him getting into the act of doing some bowling and that is why the fitness aspect is important, because if you let that go then he is not going to be strong enough to bowl. Once the injury is rectified, it is going to take one or two nets sessions to make sure he is bowling fit,” Jennings said.At the auction this year, Royal Challengers picked seven new players, out of which four were specialist fast bowlers, swelling the quick bowling numbers in the squad to ten. Asked to explain the reason behind having so many fast bowlers in the squad, Jennings said the plan was really to have multiple options.”My feeling in the IPL is to have a limited amount of batsmen because of the lesser opportunities available to them, so you need to settle the guys down. As far as the bowlers go, Virat, the boss (Vijay Mallya) and myself felt that having a larger group is beneficial as bowlers tend to have injuries.” Citing an example, Jennings used left-arm Indian fast bowler RP Singh, who was coming into the tournament having recuperated from a long injury lay-off which had kept him out of the domestic season after the IPL last year, and the franchise did not want to take a chance in case RP was injured early on. “We just felt that if we were going have an extra player, then we should have one in the bowling department.”

A round-up of Friday’s matches in the MiWAY T20 Challenge

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Mar-2012Some manic, late hitting from Chris Morris almost gave Lions a remarkable comeback win, but Cape Cobras hung on to win by just one run at Newlands. The contest seemed over when Lions were left needing 44 runs off three overs, with four wickets in hand, to overhaul Cobras’ 180. Morris hit two fours, and Thami Tsolekile one, to take 17 runs off Justin Kemp in the 18th over, but only seven came off the next, bowled by Brad Hogg, leaving Lions 20 to win off the last. Morris hit Charl Langeveldt’s second ball over backward point, his fourth through midwicket and fifth over extra cover, all for fours, and Lions needed four off the last ball. Morris could only manage to drive the ball to long-on and Lions fell one run short.It should never have got that close for Cobras, who put up an impressive total and then took quick wickets to peg Lions back after Jonathan Vandiar’s 59 off 38 balls had got the chase off to a brisk start.Cobras reached 180 thanks to Owais Shah’s 79 not out off 44 balls. Shah came in after Cobras had lost their openers early and was watchful initially, before breaking free with two leg-side boundaries in the eighth over. He worked the ones and twos in the middle overs, and then exploded in the end. He smashed Dirk Nannes for three consecutive fours in the 16th over, hit two fours and a six in the next one, bowled by Morris, and collected two more boundaries off Sohail Tanvir in the 20th. Shah was assisted by Dane Vilas, who scored 49 not out off 31 balls, including three big sixes.

Jandre Coetzee’s remarkable bowling performance helped Knights win a low-scoring match against Warriors, in Port Elizabeth, by 13 runs, and move to second in the table. Coetzee, the left-arm medium-pacer, took three wickets and conceded just seven runs in his four overs, which included a maiden, as Knights defended 127. Coetzee struck with the first ball of the second innings, getting rid of the dangerous JJ Smuts. He was taken out of the attack after just one over, and Warriors got their chase on track through Colin Ingram’s boundary-filled 53. Two wickets fell in the tenth over, bowled by offspinner Werner Coetsee – Ingram was run out and Johan Botha out caught – but Warriors were still favourites at 84 for 4 in 12 oversCoetzee then came back and took two wickets in three balls to derail the chase. He was held back again, and when he came on to bowl the 17th over, delivered a maiden, which causes the required-rate to rise from 7.00 to 9.33. His next over, the 19th, went for just four runs, and sealed the win.Knights had started off briskly in their innings but the boundaries become harder to find in the middle overs and then completely disappeared in the last five. Obus Pienaar’s 39 off 34 balls had given Knights a solid base, but their middle and lower order could not build on it, and only 26 runs came off the last five overs to keep the total to 127. They needed a good bowling performance to win, and they got one.

Titans and Dolphins shared the points after their match at SuperSport Park was abandoned after 10.3 overs. The match was delayed after 2.2 overs due to lightning. The players came back out but could only play a few more overs before the rain came and washed the game out.

Paul Sheldon has announced that he is stepping down as Surrey chief executive at the end of March after 15 years in the position

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Feb-2011Paul Sheldon has announced that he is stepping down as Surrey chief executive at the end of March after 15 years in the position. During that time he has overseen the club’s rise to become the most financially successful county, although that has coincided with a long-term slump in form on the field.Surrey’s strong financial footing has come from a number of schemes which included selling the naming rights to the ground and the construction of the OCS stand at the Vauxhall End of the ground. The club also benefits from a long-term staging agreement with the ECB and in 2005 and 2009 hosted deciding Ashes Tests.It has allowed the county to spend large sums on attracting big-name players to The Oval including Steven Davies and Chris Tremlett. However, there has been no swift upturn in results with the club still stuck in the second division of the County Championship but Sheldon has many positive memories.”I have stood down because I believe I have taken the club as far as I can, and that now is the right time to hand over the reins,” Sheldon said. “I am very proud of what we have achieved at the club over the last fifteen years. Most especially, I remember the winning era of the great Adam Hollioake side; the building of the iconic OCS Stand and the historic Ashes winning years of 2005 and 2009.”It has been a privilege to have served as chief executive of one of the greatest cricket clubs in the world and to have worked with so many talented people both inside and outside the club. Many of them have become good friends along the way.”Richard Thompson, the Surrey chairman, said: “Paul’s service to the Club, from running our 150th celebrations in 1995, to then becoming our chief executive shortly afterwards has been outstanding. Both on and off the field, Paul leaves a tremendous legacy and many enduring friendships. Paul will always be part of the Surrey family.”

Chris Swan and Luke Feldman demolished South Australia in one session to give Queensland a big lead at the close of a day on which 20 wickets fell at the Gabba

Cricinfo staff04-Mar-2010Queensland 160 (Putland 4-55, George 3-32) and 2 for 132 (Townsend 74*) lead South Australia 72 (Swan 5-26, Feldman 4-14) by 220 runs

ScorecardChris Swan starred with 5 for 26•Getty Images

Chris Swan and Luke Feldman demolished South Australia in one session to give Queensland a big lead at the close of a day on which 20 wickets fell at the Gabba. The Redbacks capitulated for 72 in reply to Queensland’s 160 and then watched as the Bulls top order reached 2 for 132 in the second innings to extend the lead to an imposing 220.Swan and Feldman, the tailenders who batted the Bulls to victory against Victoria recently, did the job with the ball as the Redbacks collapsed in 30.3 overs. Swan picked up a career-best 5 for 26 and Feldman grabbed 4 for 14 as the swinging ball proved a major weapon against a South Australian line-up in which only two men reached double figures.Tim Ludeman top scored with 20 after Michael Klinger had reached 11 and the failure of the South Australian tail to wag was the big difference from Queensland’s first innings. The Bulls had been in big trouble at 9 for 93 when Feldman (31 not out) and Nathan Rimmington (32) fought back with the biggest partnership of the innings.Their 67-run stand proved vital after Gary Putland tore through the top order and finished with 4 for 55. Despite rain washing out almost the entire first day’s play, the pitch held up well and that was shown by Ryan Broad and Wade Townsend, who put on 127 for the opening wicket when Queensland batted for the second time.Broad was caught off the bowling of Peter George for 49 and Lee Carseldine fell in the same over for a duck but the Bulls were well and truly on top already. At stumps, Townsend was unbeaten on 74 and the teenage debutant Chris Lynn was on 4.