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Van der Merwe, Edwards and Seelaar seal Netherlands' highest ODI chase
Published in
Cricket
Friday, 21 June 2019 11:28

Netherlands 291 for 7 (O'Dowd 59, van der Merwe 57, Edwards 44, Seelaar 32*, Williams 4-43) beat Zimbabwe 290 for 6 (Raza 85*, Ervine 84, Taylor 51) by three wickets
Zimbabwe came into this game after getting a proper beating. But nearly all of their key players stood up to change the narrative. Sikandar Raza played finisher to perfection, made 85 off only 68 balls, remaining unbeaten so that the efforts by his team-mates higher up the order - Craig Ervine scored 84 and Brendan Taylor struck a fifty as well - yielded a solid total. At the innings break, 290 for 6 looked a winning score. And that perception only grew when Sean Williams too four wickets with his left-arm spin.
Netherlands were 167 for 5 in the 33rd over. They had never chased a target as big as this in ODI cricket before. Fast forward to the 49th and they were gifted the winning run off a wide.
Much of the recovery had already been done, with Roelof van der Merwe striking a composed 57 off 54 balls and the wicketkeeper Scott Edwards keeping pace despite scoring only three boundaries in his unbeaten 44. That sixth-wicket partnership at nearly run a ball gave way to one for the seventh wicket that was pure mayhem.
The Netherlands captain Pieter Seelaar came out with the equation reading 62 off 42 balls and completely broke the game. He faced only 15 deliveries but sent six of them to the boundary to ensure his team set a new national record.
A big chase usually needs a good opening stand and Netherlands had that too. Tobias Visee, who will be opening the batting with Chris Gayle at the Global T20 Canada, batted in a matter befitting that as he whacked 41 off only 33 balls. His partner, Max O'Dowd who scored a half-century on debut on Wednesday followed it up with another, but when he fell to Williams, the game seemed to tilt towards Zimbabwe and the series was set to be shared 1-1.
Then everything changed.
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Lasith Malinga, Angelo Mathews star as Sri Lanka stun England
Published in
Cricket
Friday, 21 June 2019 12:30

Sri Lanka 232 for 9 (Mathews 85*, Avishka 49, Kusal Mendis 46, Wood 3-40, Archer 3-52) beat England 212 (Stokes 82*, Root 57, Malinga 4-43, Dhananjaya 3-32) by 20 runs
Lasith Malinga conjured a vintage spell, part-time offspinner Dhananjaya de Silva struck three times in nine balls, Angelo Mathews scored a stubborn 85 not out, and Avishka Fernando made a rollicking 49 to shock tournament favourites England and give Sri Lanka enough reason to dream of a spot in the semi-finals.
There were other heroes as well for Sri Lanka. Nuwan Pradeep bowled some mean inswingers with the new ball and then returned for the last over to have No. 11 Mark Wood feathering behind to deny Ben Stokes, who remained unbeaten - and heartbroken - on 82 off 89 balls. Isuru Udana backed up his excellent pace variations with two sharp catches - one off his own bowling and the other at the edge of the boundary. Kusal Mendis (46), like Mathews, had produced his highest score of the tournament to haul Sri Lanka to a scrappy 232 for 9. All of this resulted in Sri Lanka admirably defending that meagre total against a mighty England side that had topped 300 in eight of their last nine ODI innings. This, despite some late monster blows from Stokes.
Watch on Hotstar (India only): Mathews' fighting 85 not out
He threatened a jailbreak even after England were reduced to 186 for 9 in the 44th over. He farmed the strike and teed off, violently carting Udana for back-to-back sixes and then hitting the returning Pradeep for back-to-back fours. Stokes found a single off the fifth ball of the 47th over and Wood needed to see off just one ball. However, it wasn't to be as Pradeep's near-perfect full ball in the channel grazed the thinnest of outside edges and capped a remarkable comeback for the ragtag, seemingly down-and-out team.
Malinga had struck with the second ball of the chase to pin local lad Jonny Bairstow lbw for a duck and, not much later, sent James Vince back caught at slip. He would return to whip up some old magic, dismissing the other local boy Joe Root for 57 and Jos Buttler for 10 in successive overs. While Root was late onto a glance and was snaffled down the leg side, the ball that bested Buttler was a Malinga special: an inch-perfect leg-stump yorker that burst under his bat and had him lbw.
Just as Sri Lanka were ramping up the pressure on England, Jeevan Mendis bowled a half-volley and a dirty long-hop that was smoked into the stands by Stokes. Enter Dhananjaya. Exit Moeen. The batsman had just aerially slog-swept an offbreak just away from the reach of deep midwicket, but he still ventured another big blow off the next ball and picked out Udana at long-off for 16. Then, in his next over, Dhananjaya took down both Chris Woakes and Adil Rashid to leave England at 178 for 8. It became 186 for 9 when Udana tricked Jofra Archer with his back-of-the-hand variation.
ALSO READ: Stats - Malinga joins McGrath, Murali and Akram
Stokes then went bang, but Wood, who had hoped at the halfway mark that England might not need him with the bat, couldn't hang on with him. Had he safely negotiated that ball from Pradeep, England would have only had to deal with the change bowlers, with Malinga having bowled out too.
An upset did not seem likely when Root was unflappable in the early half of the chase, playing percentage shots on a slow, grippy Headingley pitch. He got cracking with a serene punch behind point, but Malinga and Pradeep didn't allow him to keep going with similar fluency. Root, though, soldiered to his fifth fifty-plus score in six innings this World Cup. However, it was his dismissal that triggered a full-blown collapse.
The sun was shining in its full glory in the morning, and Avishka played more glorious back-foot drives and pulls that had former Sri Lankan stylist Kumar Sangakarra gushing, "He's got timing, this boy!" on TV commentary. Archer was clubbed so far into the stands beyond square leg that the ball bounced off a railing and disappeared out of the ground. All told, Avishka took Archer for 24 off 15 balls. However, when Wood dug one short and wide outside off, he neither played an upper-cut nor a ramp and wound up simply gliding the ball into the lap of deep third man.
Mathews and Kusal Mendis then got together for a 71-run stand - the highest in the game. Mathews took 13 balls to get off the mark and 39 to find the boundary, but Kusal Mendis scored at a brisker clip at the other end as they kept Moeen and Rashid at bay until the 30th over. Rashid, who is nursing a shoulder issue and taking injections for it, suddenly rediscovered some zip and removed Kusal Mendis and Jeevan Mendis off successive balls to reduce Sri Lanka to 133 for 5.
With the innings spiralling out of control, Mathews adopted a more vigilant approach and tightened up further to give Sri Lanka a shot at batting out their 50 overs. Archer and Wood's extra pace made light work of the lower order, but they could not find a way past Mathews.
He tiptoed to an 84-ball half-century - the joint-slowest in this tournament alongside Afghanistan's Hashmatullah Shahidi's effort. But, it wasn't until the last over of the innings that Mathews unleashed a shot in anger. His lusty leg-side club off Archer helped Sri Lanka reach 232, which proved enough in the end.
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West Indies focus on team bonding instead of training on the eve of New Zealand game
Published in
Cricket
Friday, 21 June 2019 13:25

Cricket has an unhealthy obsession with training. Of course, you need to come to the ground once before the match to look at the pitch, get the feel of it, but teams rightly take the day before the match easy. Fast bowlers usually give training a miss the day before. Main batsmen are left to their devices. If the coach feels someone needs work, that particular player is summoned. So it should not come as a big surprise if a team chooses to take the whole day off and indulges in other team-bonding activities. Not if you are losing, though.
And West Indies have been losing. Every game for them now is like a must-win. Next up are unbeaten New Zealand. West Indies are under the pump, and so it becomes a big issue to cricket that they didn't practise but went clay-target shooting on the eve of the game. They know the conditions from a full-on training session two days from the match. They have niggles to monitor. Yet their captain Jason Holder's press conference was almost like a hearing.
Holder didn't lose his cool. At least he didn't show it. "We had a team event," Holder said when asked if it was right his side had gone clay-target shooting instead of training. "We wanted to get the guys together, just have a team event, a team bonding session. And I think it went really well."
The assumption with West Indies missing the training is that they have already given up on the tournament. Holder found himself defending the side against such comments too. The thing is, there isn't enough verbal defending you can do. "I think the only thing we can do is come and play a solid game of cricket tomorrow against New Zealand," Holder said. "I think there has been enough talk going around for quite some time. And we've just got to play cricket now. I think we've done enough talking as a group. It's just a matter for us to deliver."
Their decision-making - a high-risk strategy of going short and quick with the ball and looking to hit big with the bat - has been under the scanner as has been playing half-fit players. It went too far when Andre Russell kept limping on the field against Bangladesh even though he didn't bowl after the 25th over. But that's how desperate it has been for West Indies: they kept him on in the hope he could deliver some magic against new batsmen if they do get a breakthrough somehow.
In the match against New Zealand, West Indies won't have that dilemma. "We've still got a few niggles within the group," Holder said. "We're trying to manage niggles the best we possibly can. I think one guy who probably may be definitely out tomorrow is Russell. I don't think he's fit enough to go tomorrow. But everybody else should be good to go."
West Indies do have hope, though. They are coming to a venue that has been full of runs, and they have memories of what they did to the New Zealand bowlers in the warm-up game: score 421 runs against virtually the same attack. They draw inspiration from that.
"It just shows what we can produce," Holder said of the warm-up game. "It's a situation where we've just got to pull on those resources, remember the things that we did in that game. And it just shows that when we're at our best what we can produce. I just think the guys just need to be clear, need to be calm and just execute their plans."
West Indies had to take the Qualifier route to the World Cup. They are playing with a team that rarely comes together. They are a side that has had to take risks and hope for some luck to compete in this tournament. They have been unfortunate with injuries and niggles. It is clear it has not worked out for them but they are a win short of being in the same boat as Bangladesh.
So it is not because of not training a day before the game that they find themselves in the position they are. Nor does it mean Holder has not had a stern word or three with the team. "I think it's a situation where you've had to be tough," Holder said. "We've had a few frank discussions within the dressing room to find ways in which we can improve on. I think all teams would get themselves in that situation at some point. But, yeah, we've had some pretty good discussions over the last couple of days. And tomorrow is just a day to deliver."
As for beating New Zealand, "I'd say it's not impossible. We've beaten them before. We can beat them again."
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Eoin Morgan has admitted England "didn't deserve to win" their World Cup match against Sri Lanka in Leeds.
England's chances of qualifying for the semi-finals received a significant blow as a result of the 20-run defeat, with Morgan accepting's his side's batting was "not good enough to win the game."
But Morgan refused to single out Moeen Ali, who was caught on the long-off boundary with 53 required from 70 balls, for blame. Instead he suggested the entire batting line-up should take responsibility.
"Partnerships are very important and we struggled to get any partnerships going," Morgan said. "We had a couple of individual innings but that's not good enough to win a game.
"I don't think Moeen's wicket was the turning point. There were quite a few wickets which were turning points. You've got guys coming in at No. 6 who average 40 and at No. 7 who average 30. We bat all the way down. So every single one is significant as every single one could establish a partnership that could win the game.
"There were a couple of challenges which presented themselves with the wicket. We didn't overcome them. We didn't deserve to win today's game."
Jos Buttler, England's vice-captain, agreed. But he also praised Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga, who was named Man of the Match for his four wickets, and went on to suggest that England may have missed the injured Jason Roy.
"I think we lacked energy with the bat," he said. "We were a little bit passive as a group with the bat. And we haven't been for a long time so that, so that is the most frustrating thing.
"As a group we didn't have that intensity today. Obviously Jason is a guy who naturally gives us that but we can all do that from No. 1 to No. 11, so that is the most disappointing thing. We have played in a certain way for a long period of time and we went away from that today.
"Malinga is different. And we didn't counter him as well as we could today. But you do have to give credit to a fantastic bowler."
Despite the result, Morgan and Buttler expressed confidence in England's ability to quality for the semi-finals.
"The message is quite simple," Morgan said. "We need to do the basics of how we play well. We need to go back to the process that's made us a strong side.
"When we're beaten we tend to come back quite strong. We resort to aggressive, smart, positive cricket. So let's hope that the case when we play Australia at Lord's on Tuesday. There's no reason we why belief should not still be strong."
"That game will bring lots of intensity," Buttler said. "England and Australia games are big games and it's at a fantastic ground. This will hurt for a few days, but then we will get ready for the next game."
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OBJ: Couldn't reach 'full potential' with Giants
Published in
Breaking News
Friday, 21 June 2019 13:56

Cleveland Browns wide receiver Odell Beckham Jr. says his departure from the New York Giants was necessary because he felt he "wasn't going to be able to reach my full potential there."
Beckham addressed leaving the Giants in an interview with Complex published Thursday, saying the opportunity to join the Browns will allow his on-field production to flourish.
"I just felt with the Giants I was just stuck at a place that wasn't working for me anymore," Beckham said. "I felt like I wasn't going to be able to reach my full potential there. Mentally, physically, spiritually, everything I felt capable of doing, I just couldn't see it happening there. So I think allowing me to be in an environment where I can be myself and give it a different approach, I feel like my football will benefit. I'm just excited about being able to play football again and not have to deal with all the other stuff and politics that came with my previous role."
Beckham had a tumultuous exit from New York, traded in March after a 2018 season in which he openly questioned quarterback Eli Manning's ability and less than a year after signing a five-year deal with the Giants worth up to $98.5 million.
To Complex, Beckham touted the culture in Cleveland and again expressed excitement about pairing with former LSU teammate and fellow wide receiver Jarvis Landry.
"They've got players over there who I just know I'm gonna click with," Beckham told Complex. "Jarvis is a brother of mine, and we dreamed of this moment. It's just crazy that it's actually happening. The percentage of people that make it to the NFL is less than 1%, so the chances of me playing with one of my brothers on the same team is a dream manifested, for sure."
Beckham has previously shared his joy over being a member of the Browns, saying June 5 that he was "almost giddy" to be in Cleveland.
As he prepares for his sixth NFL season, Beckham says he is on a social media hiatus, posting in an Instagram story Thursday that he is "goin away till July 1st for trainin." He told Complex that he is looking forward to the "fresh start" that comes with playing for a new team.
"I've been waiting to explode in games, and I've been working extremely hard [to take] my game to the next level," he said. "That's exactly what I think I can do at the Browns."
The Complex interview was conducted while Beckham was in London last weekend and participated in tryouts for the NFL Academy.
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Tacko Fall, a 7-foot-6 center from UCF, will sign an Exhibit 10 contract with the Boston Celtics, a source told ESPN's Jonathan Givony.
Exhibit 10 contracts, introduced in the NBA's most recent collective bargaining agreement, are one-year deals paying the minimum salary. They also can be used for two-way contracts.
Fall was not selected Thursday night during the NBA draft.
Fall averaged 10.1 points, 7.7 rebounds, 2.4 blocks and shot 74 percent from the field over his four-year collegiate career. During his senior season, he posted marks of 11.1 points, 7.6 rebounds, 2.6 blocks and hit 74.8 percent of his attempts.
Fall has attracted attention because of his size and because he held his own against Zion Williamson in UCF's one-point loss to Duke in the NCAA tournament.
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Former Duke teammates Zion Williamson and RJ Barrett are slated to make their NBA summer league debuts against each other.
The NBA said Friday that Williamson and the New Orleans Pelicans will face off against Barrett and the New York Knicks on July 5, the first day of the league's annual summer showcase at UNLV. Williamson was the No. 1 pick in Thursday's draft, and Barrett was selected No. 3 overall.
Another marquee matchup awaits Williamson on July 6, when the Pelicans take on the Washington Wizards and No. 9 selection Rui Hachimura -- the first Japanese-born player to be taken in the first round of the draft.
All 30 NBA teams will be participating in Las Vegas, along with the Chinese and Croatian national teams. China will play the Miami Heat on July 5, the Sacramento Kings on July 6, the Charlotte Hornets on July 8 and the Milwaukee Bucks on July 10. Croatia takes on the Detroit Pistons on July 5, the Brooklyn Nets on July 7, the Oklahoma City Thunder on July 9 and the Dallas Mavericks on July 10.
Every team is guaranteed five games, with eight teams making the playoffs. Quarterfinals are on July 13, semifinals on July 14 and the title game on July 15.
There are summer leagues again this year in Salt Lake City and Sacramento as well, with both of those four-team events beginning July 1. No. 2 overall pick Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies will take part in the Utah event before coming to Las Vegas.
Last year's summer league in Las Vegas set records for attendance, viewership and online traffic across the NBA's social and digital platforms. This year, ESPN will air every game on the ESPN App and 43 games across its networks. NBA TV will air 40 games.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Texas Rangers third baseman Asdrubal Cabrera was hit with a four-game suspension and an undisclosed fine for throwing his batting gloves from the dugout at umpire Bill Miller during Thursday's 4-2 win over the Cleveland Indians in Arlington, Texas.
Cabrera had gone 0-for-3 with three strikeouts before getting ejected in the bottom of the sixth inning for arguing balls and strikes. He responded by throwing the gloves, one of which appeared to hit Miller.
Cabrera is expected to appeal, so he will likely be in the lineup Friday when the Rangers host the Chicago White Sox. The suspension will be held in abeyance until the appeal is resolved.
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Atlanta Braves third baseman Josh Donaldson won his appeal and will not be suspended after a benches-clearing incident with the Pittsburgh Pirates, a source told ESPN's Jeff Passan.
His fine for the incident was also reduced to $1,000, the source said.
Donaldson had been suspended for one game following a skirmish with Pirates right-hander Joe Musgrove and catcher Elias Diaz on June 10.
With two outs in the first inning, Musgrove grazed Donaldson's jersey with a pitch. As Donaldson headed to first base, he exchanged words with Musgrove and took a few steps toward the mound before Diaz intervened. Donaldson shoved Diaz, prompting players from both dugouts and bullpens to spill onto the field. No punches were thrown and the field was quickly cleared.
Donaldson and Musgrove were ejected from the game, and Pirates manager Clint Hurdle was ejected by plate umpire Brian Gorman for arguing the decision to toss Musgrove.
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