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Meanwhile, Australia captain Meg Lanning has returned to training with Victoria after missing the Women’s Ashes

Alex Malcolm25-Aug-2023Australia quick Tayla Vlaeminck’s horror run with injury continues with shoulder surgery ruling her out of a second straight WBBL season months before the tournament is set to get underway.Cricket Australia confirmed on Friday that Vlaeminck had surgery to stabilise her left shoulder following the dislocation she suffered while bowling for Australia A in July on the tour of England that ran alongside the Women’s Ashes.It was Vlaeminck’s first foray back into representative cricket in 18 months following a long rehabilitation for a stress fracture in the navicular bone in her right foot. That injury initially kept her out of the 2020 T20 World Cup but a recurrence during the 2021-22 home Ashes saw her miss the 2022 ODI World Cup, the 2022 Commonwealth Games, last season’s WBBL and the 2023 T20 World Cup in South Africa.Related

• Lanning ruled out of West Indies series but Healy and Perry return

• Kapp goes pick one to Thunder in WBBL draft as Scorchers retain Devine

• Healy hopeful of Lanning return for WI series

• Vlaeminck suffers injury setback in bid to make top-tier return

• New action, lighter load, and a bit of ballet: Vlaeminck's comeback journey

Having been on the comeback trail, thanks in part to working with the Australian Ballet to strengthen her feet, she will now miss another WBBL campaign with Melbourne Renegades, having not played a game for them since returning to Renegades in 2022 after spending the previous two seasons with Hobart Hurricanes. Since making her WBBL debut in 2018, Vlaeminck has played just 33 matches and will have missed three seasons entirely through injury by the end of this year.CA’s head of performance for women’s cricket Shawn Flegler confirmed there was no timeframe for Vlaeminck’s recovery. She will be unavailable when Australia host West Indies for three T20Is and three ODIs in October but the next international series for Australia is not until late December when they tour India for an all-format tour of one Test, three ODIs and three T20Is.”We’re disappointed for Tayla, she has shown incredible resilience and perseverance throughout injury setbacks over the past few years and worked hard to earn her spot on the Australia A tour,” Flegler said.”We will continue to work collaboratively with Cricket Victoria’s high-performance staff to support Tayla over the course of her rehabilitation.”Meanwhile, there is more positive news for Australia with long-term captain Meg Lanning returning to training with Victoria ahead of the domestic summer after missing the Women’s Ashes due an undisclosed medical issue.Victoria’s WNCL season begins on September 26 against Western Australia in Perth. Stand-in Australia captain Alyssa Healy was hopeful Lanning would be ready to return for the series against West Indies, beginning on October 1.

Playing for Leicestershire, the India wicketkeeper scored a rollicking 76 off 87 balls

Sidharth Monga24-Jun-2022From the moment he came out wearing the big gloves for Leicestershire, Rishabh Pant against India’s Test seam bowlers was a juicy prospect. Pant has his own method of playing seam bowlers. He can often look clueless, but he can also be dismissive and ruthless as is evident in his centuries in England and Australia, and the two scarcely believable innings in Sydney and Brisbane at the start of 2021. How was he going to tackle his own bowlers, who are among the best seam-bowling units going around?The Leicestershire batting, not all of them first-choice players, made sure Pant was out there answering the question as early as the 14th over, at 44 for 3, one of the wickets being Cheteshwar Pujara, playing on trying to cut Mohammed Shami. And he lit up a gloomy afternoon at Grace Road as the Indians continued a second fruitful day of practice. Pant came out the better in his exchange with Shami, Mohammed Siraj, Umesh Yadav and Shardul Thakur (Jasprit Bumrah played for Leicestershire), playing shots both orthodox and innovative, to score 76 off 87 balls to cancel out the Indians’ first-innings score of 246, declared overnight.With two days and an hour still to go, there was enough time for a grandstand one-innings shootout. We might still get it come the fourth day, but the immediate pursuit was quality practice more than the competitiveness: Rohit Sharma didn’t open the innings, sending in KS Bharat instead after his first-innings half-century, nor did Jasprit Bumrah bowl. As a result, Navdeep Saini got a chance to bowl, removing Shubman Gill through a second loose, in-between shot of the match.The highlight of the day remained Pant, who took on all of the seamers, scoring 26 off 30 balls from Shami, 20 off 23 against Siraj and 13 off 12 when facing Umesh. He went from 45 off 72 to 70 off 82, unleashing extra-cover drives, paddle sweeps off the quicks, and nonchalant short-arm jabs. He brought up his fifty with an audacious sweep off Umesh.In the end, though, Pant fell to what is his natural strength: spin, that too left-arm. He tried to slog-sweep Ravindra Jadeja, but the lack of turn took the outer edge for a high catch at long-on. If there ever was any doubt around Jadeja getting a place in the first XI, he laid it to rest with three wickets in just eight overs.Bharat’s impressive batting continued into the second innings as he and Gill got off a flying start. The first real mistake from them came in the 11th over by which time they had reached 59. Gill looked imperious in his early stroke-play, but was caught on the crease, pushing away from the body, falling to the extra bounce for Saini. The Indians ended the day at 80 for 1, a lead of 82.

The opener saw the visitors home after a half-century from Punam Raut led India to nearly 250

Debayan Sen12-Mar-2021A career-best 132 not out from Lizelle Lee helped South Africa to a 2-1 lead in the five-match ODI series as they were six runs ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) par score, when an unseasonal shower ended the match in the 47th over of the visitors’ chase of 249. South Africa were on course, on 223 for 4, led by Lee’s third ODI century, and needed 26 from 21 when rain interrupted and just under half an hour the match was called off with South Africa winners as the DLS score to win then was 218.Put in to bat, India scored 248 for 5, powered by a steady 77 from Punam Raut, with identical contributions of 36 from captain Mithali Raj – who brought up 10,000 runs in international cricket – Deepti Sharma and Harmanpreet Kaur.After 36 overs, South Africa were cruising along at 178 for 2 after Lee had brought up a century off just 97 balls, and her partnership with Mignon du Preez was approaching three figures. In fact, du Preez had just skipped down the pitch to Jhulan Goswami, whose first two spells had given her figures of 6-2-9-1, and lofted her over long-on for the second six of the South Africa innings to kick off the batting powerplay.Yet, the next four overs brought South Africa just four runs because du Preez (37) and Marizanne Kapp (0) perished inside a span of 10 balls without the visitors adding any runs, Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Goswami the successful bowlers, as the pressure grew on Lee, left in the company of a relatively inexperienced middle order.With the sky darkening, and a light drizzle starting, Lee then slapped Poonam Yadav through midwicket for six, and picked up three further boundaries in the space of nine balls off Sharma and Kaur to keep South Africa ahead of the DLS par score as the umpires kept conferring about whether to continue or not. As the rain became heavier, South Africa walked off with the knowledge that Lee had placed them ahead of the DLS score.Earlier, South Africa had quite the dramatic start to the day, with captain Sune Luus pulling up ill ahead of the toss, forcing 21-year-old Laura Wolvaardt to step into the captain’s shoes for the first time in her 83rd international game. Wolvaardt also had to cope with the loss of regular wicketkeeper Trisha Chetty, who was injured during warm-up and replaced by Sinalo Jafta.South Africa took a 2-1 lead in the series•UPCA

South Africa had the perfect start, as on her way to a wicket maiden, Shabnim Ismail got the second ball of the match to swing away and draw an edge to Jafta from Jemimah Rodrigues, condemning her to a third straight single-digit score. India’s first runs came through a Smriti Mandhana tickle on the on side, but then Raut picked up three boundaries off Ismail – two of them glanced to fine leg – in her second over, which yielded 16 runs. This spurred Mandhana into action as well, who clubbed a couple of trademark cover drives, as India raced to 35 off the first six.South Africa then changed tactics, particularly to Raut, and bowled outside off, with a cordon of fielders blocking off her cuts and dabs to third man. The rare error in line was punished, but after slapping Sekhukhule for boundaries over midwicket and through covers in her first over, Mandhana mistimed an intended pull over midwicket to deep square leg to fall for a breezy 25, leaving India at 64 for 2 after 12 overs.Raj and Raut were watchful to begin with, as Wolvaardt shuffled her bowlers around, bringing Ismail and Kapp back for second spells too, but a couple of streaky boundaries through the slips allowed the Indians to keep their run rate in the region of five. Raut brought up her 15th ODI fifty in the 25th over, and from thereon, both Indian batters stepped on the accelerator. Raut was the aggressor in a short spell where India scored five boundaries in three overs, and also included Raj’s boundary off Bosch to move to 36 that made her the second batter after Charlotte Edwards to get to 10,000 international runs. She fell immediately after, mistiming a pull off Bosch to midwicket, enabling South Africa to break a 77-run partnership. South African spirits were perked up further when Kapp lured Raut into a false shot, top-edging to mid-off for 77 off 108.Kaur was brisk in the powerplay, taking full toll of Bosch’s slingy medium pace to flick her through square leg and then clip her over short fine leg as India scored 30 off the five overs to leave themselves at 193 for 4, and within sight of an imposing total.As Kaur looked to open up in the end overs, she top-edged Ismail on 36, only for Sekhukhune to complete a smart catch, peddling back from mid-off, meaning India could only pick up 55 off the last 10 overs.The score looked adequate to begin with, India conceding just 15 off the first six overs, with Goswami in particular choking up Wolvaardt just outside off, inducing her to drive repeatedly to the well-guarded arc between mid-off and cover-point. Even in the early exchanges, Lee was quick to pounce on any scoring opportunities, racing to 40 off the first 42 balls she faced, even as Sharma bowled Wolvaardt through the gate by spinning one sharply from outside off by inducing her to drive.Lara Goodall walked in at No. 3, fresh from a tenacious 49 in the previous match, but missed a fair few sweeps, a shot that led to her downfall in the second ODI. Her misery at the crease ended when she chipped Goswami to mid-on, having consumed 41 balls for her 16.This brought together du Preez and Lee, who batted with great intent right from the start. Lee was severe on any error in length from the spinners, while du Preez worked the ball around the dial to keep the score ticking over. The enterprising partnership picked up 82 off 11 overs after the 25-over mark before the innings saw a mini-wobble but it didn’t cost South Africa the match.

Offspinner signs a record six-year deal to stay with Sydney Thunder in the BBL

Alex Malcolm17-Nov-2019Chris Green has signed the longest deal in BBL history after Sydney Thunder signed the offspinner for a further six seasons.Green, 26, is one of the very few Australian players who isn’t involved in the traditional domestic state pathway, instead opting to become a T20 globetrotter. But the Thunder have signed him on for six seasons not only for his value as a specialist T20 spinner with an ability bowl in the powerplay, as well as being a crafty lower-order batsman, but also for his loyalty to the Thunder and his standing as a leader and ambassador for the club.Despite not currently being involved in four-day and 50-over cricket for New South Wales – he has never played a first-class game – Green has been encouraged by feedback from the Australian selectors about his international prospects. He was not selected for Australia’s most recent two T20I series but was picked to play in the Prime Minister’s XI and the Cricket Australia XI T20 tour games against Sri Lanka and Pakistan and remains in contention for the T20 World Cup in Australia next year.Green said he was grateful for the Thunder’s backing after being the first franchise to give him a chance.”Thunder was the first team that backed me when I was playing grade cricket, so to lock in my future with the club is really exciting,” Green said. “It’s not often you have security, so for me to get that with a club that I love, I’m really excited and very grateful for this opportunity to continue to represent Thunder into the future.”Green’s performances for the Thunder in the powerplay have propelled him to opportunities in the Caribbean Premier League where he has starred for the Guyana Amazon Warriors. He has also played in Canada’s Global T20, the T20 Blast and the PSL. He is currently playing for the Northern Warriors in the Abu Dhabi T10 tournament.

While looking to shore up his bowling and find a place in Australia’s squad for their upcoming tour of the UAE, he also wants to work on his batting skills and be able to slot in anywhere in the order

Sruthi Ravindranath25-Aug-2018Ashton Agar wants to be as good as he can at everything. He wants to be adaptable, to be able to pad up at any time for his side, and be the floater who can go bang from the first ball.Agar introduced himself to the world in 2013 as a 19-year-old left-arm spinner who smacked a 98 on Test debut, while batting at No. 11, on an Ashes tour. His career didn’t quite take off from there as expected. He has played only 26 international games so far, and has only become a limited-overs regular in recent times.Agar found a place in the ODI side that toured England in June, as one of two main spinners along with Nathan Lyon. While the series was catastrophic for an Australia side that was well below full strength, Agar was one of the few players who came out of it with something to smile about. While the rest of the batting order floundered, Agar, at No. 7, was Australia’s second-highest scorer in the first two ODIs, slamming quick forties in both games. And in a series where England made the highest ODI total of all time, he was one of only three Australian bowlers to concede less than six runs an over.On Saturday, in the match against South Africa A in Bengaluru, Agar walked in with five balls left in the innings, with Australia A 304 for 5. He faced just four balls, and hit one four and two sixes to finish on 17 not out. Later, he was instrumental in repelling a spirited South Africa A chase, taking 1 for 36 in his ten overs.In his side’s defeat to India A on Thursday, Agar top-scored with a 40-ball 34 after coming in at 76 for 5. He went after Mohammed Siraj, who had been the Australians’ chief tormentor, hitting five fours off him.”I think it’s important for me to come in and go from ball one like today,” Agar said after the win against South Africa A. “I love batting just as much as I love bowling, and I’m trying to be as good as I can in everything.”In the final of the Trans-Tasman T20I tri-series against New Zealand earlier this year, Australia pushed Agar up to No. 3, but the promotion did not work as planned, and he was out stumped for 2. He was brought up to No. 5 in the fourth ODI against England in the ill-fated series in June, and he made a 15-ball 19 in the midst of another middle-order collapse.”When I was with Middlesex [playing the Vitality Blast] last month, I was working in the nets on six-hitting, and to come in and try and finish an innings,” Agar said, when asked if he sees himself capable of batting anywhere in the order. “For me it’s really important for my batting to be adaptable so I can be used in any situation.”Agar made a Test comeback after four years in the two Tests in Bangladesh last year as a second frontline spinner behind Nathan Lyon. He picked up seven wickets at an average of 23.14, but perhaps the highlight of his tour was his unbeaten 41 in the first Test, which helped Australia claw back from 124 for 7 to an eventual first-innings total of 217.With Australia’s full tour of the UAE, to play Pakistan, approaching, Agar is back in the reckoning as a spin option – as an allrounder with a decent amount of experience, both with the Test side and Australia A, in Asia.”Personally, it’s a big series for me to try and push my case to go to the UAE. To be honest, I haven’t thought much about UAE,” Agar said. “It’s worked nicely for me that way the last couple of years. I think just to bowl well in these conditions and try and formulate some good plans against good players of spin will be important if I do get picked.”

Niroshan Dickwella has been fined 30% of his match fee, and handed two demerit points, for a stumping attempt that was deemed to be “contrary to the spirit of the game” by match officials

Andrew Fidel Fernando01-Jul-2017Niroshan Dickwella has been fined 30% of his match fee, and handed two demerit points, for a stumping attempt in the first ODI against Zimbabwe that was deemed to be “contrary to the spirit of the game” by match officials.The incident had occurred in the seventh over of Zimbabwe’s innings on Friday. Dickwella gathered the ball, and waited many seconds for Solomon Mire to leave the crease, before finally breaking the stumps, long after Mire had completed the shot.When Dickwella made the appeal, the decision was sent to third umpire Nigel Llong, who found the batsman to be in his crease at the time the bails were dislodged in any case. Keepers have often waited for batsmen to overbalance before whipping off the bails, but, on this occasion, the umpires who laid the charge had likely taken exception to the length of time that elapsed between the stroke’s completion and the stumping attempt.”Dickwella admitted the offence and accepted the sanction proposed by match referee Chris Broad and, as such, there was no need for a formal hearing,” an ICC release said.This was Dickwella’s third fine of the year. In February, he had had an on-field run-in with Kagiso Rabada, and later in the month showed dissent to an umpire’s decision. He was suspended for two limited-overs games as a result, and now, having accrued seven demerit points, will suffer a similar suspension again if he is hit with any further demerit points over the next two years.

Darren Sammy and Shahid Afridi, Hampshire’s World T20-winning overseas stars, have echoed Jos Buttler’s criticisms of the NatWest T20 Blast

Andrew Miller06-Jun-2016Darren Sammy and Shahid Afridi, Hampshire’s World T20-winning overseas stars, have echoed Jos Buttler’s criticisms of the NatWest T20 Blast, admitting that the tournament’s once-a-week “appointment to view” format makes it hard for specialist players to maintain their form and focus over the course of an elongated tournament.Buttler, who recently completed his maiden stint in the IPL with Mumbai Indians, told the Daily Mail that English cricket needed a “Big Bash-style tournament” if it wanted to bring out the best in England’s white-ball cricketers.”It’s frustrating for the players and the fans that we don’t have a competition like the IPL,” Buttler said. “It feels as if our domestic players are missing out. After all, we did create Twenty20, but we’ve not taken it on.”Our teams don’t have to have different names, but we should have fewer teams, and go with a Big Bash-style tournament. And if you hold it as a block, you’re going to attract the best players.”His sentiments were echoed by two men who have ruled the world in T20 cricket – Sammy, who captained West Indies to victory in both the 2012 and, most recently, the 2016 World T20, when England were beaten in a thrilling final in Kolkata, and Afridi, who was Man of the Match when Pakistan beat Sri Lanka in the 2009 World T20 final at Lord’s.”It’s a difficult tournament, at least three months, it’s long,” Sammy told ESPNcricinfo. “It can be frustrating playing one or two games every weekend. It’s Twenty20, you’ve got to be playing it fast.Sammy and Afridi both played in Hampshire’s double-header over the recent weekend, at home against Kent and then away against Glamorgan, but their next outing will be a trip to Canterbury on Wednesday, leaving a lot of down-time for the players to fill.”I want my six-pack again,” Sammy joked. “I am probably going to have a set schedule to do some gym. Most of the time the first team is away during the week, so I’ll get some training in with the second team. I’ll probably visit London with my family, and get some net practice in.””England is my second home, I always enjoy my cricket here,” added Afridi. “But I’ve already talked to a few officials, that we should organise it and finish it in a month. It’s not easy playing one game then a four-day game then another T20, but as a professional cricketer you can adjust yourself.”The players’ comments echo the remarks of the ECB chairman, Colin Graves, who denounced the NatWest T20 Blast as “mediocre” before a ball had been bowled in this season’s tournament. For Sammy, who was in England during the inaugural year of the Twenty20 Cup in 2003, the difference between then and now is stark.”I remember back in 2003, when I was here in June, everybody’s on the train wearing helmets, I was like ‘what’s going on?’ It was T20, England started this thing and now, to see it going on all over in that period of time…”But the standard has always been of good quality, and that’s the most important thing,” he added, citing the progression of England’s team to the final of the World T20 in Kolkata, where only Carlos Brathwaite’s astonishing six-hitting in the final over stood between them and a second World T20 title.”I was not surprised they made it to the finals, actually. We played them in the very first match in Mumbai, we defeated them but since then they didn’t look back,” said Sammy. “We met again in the finals, Carlos did his thing in the last over, but it shows England have quality T20 players.”Joe Root is a world-class player, Ben stokes, Jos Buttler – they’ve come through playing T20 in England. The standard is good so I wasn’t surprised to see England play well. They’ve won a World Cup before [World T20 in 2010] and I know they don’t play much around the world, so whatever T20 they are playing here, it’s about high standards. That’s why they are making it to finals of world tournaments.”

New Zealand batsman Peter Fulton has said he is looking forward to the challenge of playing in Bangladesh, his first Test series in the subcontinent

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Sep-2013New Zealand batsman Peter Fulton has said he is looking forward to the challenge of playing in Bangladesh, his first Test series in the subcontinent. New Zealand play the first of their two Tests against Bangladesh starting October 9 in Chittagong. They will also play three ODIs and a T20 on their tour.Fulton, who has played 15 Tests since his debut in 2006, has been preparing for the series by practising on worn-out tracks with his team-mate Dean Brownlie.”The good teams, the good players are able to adjust to any conditions,” Fulton told the . “That’s probably the biggest challenge you have in international cricket. All around the world, you get different conditions, different types of bowling attacks and that’s what makes it exciting. There’s always something new to come to grips with.”Fulton, who was dropped from the side in 2009, earned a Test recall in 2012 against South Africa. His comeback, however, was cut short due to injury. Fulton, however, returned with a successful domestic season, scoring 1249 runs in 23 innings at an average of 59.47 and five hundreds. He carried that form into the Test series against England in March, finishing with 347 runs in five innings at an average of 69.40, including centuries in both innings of the Auckland Test. With a busy season scheduled for New Zealand, Fulton has set his sights on cementing his place for the home Tests against India.”Hopefully that’s the plan,” Fulton said. “In terms of Tests for New Zealand over the last few years, there’s sometimes been a bit of a shortage, so it’s good to see a pretty busy Test programme and it’d be nice to be part of that.”

Durham will start next season with point deductions in all three competitions after breaching the salary cap in English domestic cricket.

ESPNcricinfo staff06-Sep-2012Durham will start next season with point deductions in all three competitions after breaching the salary cap in English domestic cricket.Counties are not allowed to pay their staff more than £1.8million in total and Durham exceeded this level, although by less than 2%. The result, apart from a £2500 fine, is a 2.5 point deduction in the Championship and a quarter of a point in both the CB40 and Friends Life t20.Durham notified the ECB as soon as they were aware of the issue and their co-operation throughout was taken into account in the final judgement.”The tribunal concluded that the sanctions in accordance with the regulations should reflect the fact that it was Durham who notified the ECB of the breach and Durham had co-operated fully and openly,” an ECB statement said.”Durham had admitted a category one breach of the regulations which state that a county should not pay its players in total more than £1.8 million a year. A category one breach is the lowest of the five categories of breach under the team salary payment regulations which apply to all 18 first-class counties and were introduced by ECB in 2010.”In a separate statement, Durham said: “In its submission to the ECB Durham explained the difficulties faced by counties who wish to remain competitive in all competitions and produce players for England.”In particular the lack of certainty relating to players in the England system means that it is impossible to have absolute certainty around the final salary bill.”

Kevon Cooper’s 25 off 11 balls saw Trinidad and Tobago beat the Cape Cobras and stay alive in the Champions League T20

The Report by Firdose Moonda04-Oct-2011Trinidad and Tobago 138 for 8 (Bravo 29, Kemp, 3-22) beat Cape Cobras 137 for 4 (Shah 63*, Badree 1-19, Narine 1-19) by 2 wickets.
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details Darren Bravo now has 116 runs in the Champions League T20, 2011•AFP

Kevon Cooper’s 25 off 11 balls saw Trinidad and Tobago beat the Cape Cobras and stay alive in the Champions League T20. Cooper scored 10 runs off Dale Steyn’s fourth over, which cost 15 runs in total, and ensured T&T got the 24 runs they needed in the last two overs. This is the second time in the tournament that Steyn has bowled a costly penultimate over, with the first being against Chennai. The win means Mumbai Indians are through to the semi-finals. T&T’s qualification depends on Chennai Super Kings beating New South Wales by a small margin. The Super Kings can also qualify if they win by a sufficient margin, while any victory for NSW puts them through.Steyn turned from hero to villain in the space of an hour and a half; he started the Cobras defence of 137 with a magnificent three-over spell of outswing bowling. He demonstrated real skill on a dead pitch, consistently beat the outside edge and was rewarded in his second over when he got one to straighten and trap William Perkins lbw.Steyn’s colleagues were not as effective from the other end: Charl Langeveldt and Rory Kleinveldt struggled with their accuracy. Kleinveldt bowled three no-balls in an extraordinary over that only cost six runs and included the wicket of Lendl Simmons. Langeveldt was better when he changed ends and used the slower ball to good effect.Adrian Barath and Darren Bravo’s third-wicket partnership of 35 runs helped T&T recover from the loss of their openers. They rotated strike well, searched for the singles, and after Barath was dropped by Vilas behind the stumps he connected well to score two big boundaries.Justin Kemp ensured that Barath could not continue attacking and hurled down a yorker to remove Barath’s leg stump. The next ball, Daren Ganga was back in the hut too, after inside-edging onto his stumps. Kemp did not complete a hat-trick but took his third wicket two overs later, removing Bravo, who had played a sensible knock until then.T&T would have thought their last hopes lay with Denesh Ramdin, who survived the hat-trick ball, and played some deft strokes. Ramdin and Sherwin Ganga took 13 runs off JP Duminy’s second over and infused the chase with momentum. They were dismissed in the space of four balls, Ganga lbw to Langeveldt and Ramdin bowled by a flighted delivery from Robin Peterson.It was left to Cooper to bat bravely and he did. His first six was a slog off Peterson and, after Rampaul steered Steyn to the third-man boundary, Cooper bludgeoned a high full toss over long-off, to leave T&T with only nine to get off the last six balls. In a final twist, Rampaul was dismissed with the first ball of the last over but Cooper smashed a low full toss for four and plucked the remaining runs with two balls to spare.The Cobras would have felt their total was 10 runs short after a gritty batting effort, in which their strokeplay was constantly stifled. The T&T spinners troubled the Cobras batsmen from the start with Richard Levi at sea against Samuel Badree. He was bowled by Badree’s second delivery, after playing for turn that was not there. Herschelle Gibbs was also dismissed cheaply after a cautious start.Owais Shah and Dane Vilas built an impressive recovery. Shah started with an authoritative flick and maintained a busy approach at the crease, even though he could have been dismissed twice by Badree. The legspinner had a confident appeal for lbw against Shah when he hit him on the pads with a full delivery but Billy Bowden turned it down. During Badree’s second spell, he beat Shah and the ball looked destined for middle and leg stump but Badree was turned down for the third time. Shah went on to anchor the Cobras innings and ground out a half-century.Sherwin Ganga was the man both Vilas and Shah targeted; they took 38 runs from his three overs, peppering the midwicket area. Ganga’s offspin they could handle, but Sunil Narine proved almost impossible to read and both employed a watchful approach against him. His legbreak eventually got the better of Vilas, who top-edged to cover after a well crafted half-century.Shah had to hang around until the end and, even after bringing up his fifty, batting did not get any easier for him. Boundaries were rare and run-scoring came in ones and twos, which had to be manufactured, rather than simply being there for the taking. JP Duminy also couldn’t find the boundary and was bowled by a Cooper cutter when he went looking for one.