Cricket news

• New Zealand fitting final foes after England’s thrilling transformation | Barney Ronay

  13-07-2019 22:00
  The Black Caps were once the inspiration, now they are the last obstacle standing between a daring England and the World CupAs it was in the beginning, so shall it be in the end. Four years on from the start of English cricket’s great white‑ball paradigm shift, Eoin Morgan’s band of buccaneers return to Lord’s on Sunday for the World Cup final. In the process they find themselves facing the most poignant of opposition.Through that period of revamp and clearing out it is N
  
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• County cricket: Ballance ton for Yorkshire puts pressure on Somerset - as it happened

  13-07-2019 20:03
  Dawid Malan hits fourth Championship hundred of the season as Middlesex take control against second-place Glamorgan7.03pm BST Gary Ballance, after a few barren innings, was back in the runs for Yorkshire as his fifth hundred in 10 Championship matches this season put the league leaders Somerset under significant pressure during a hard fought opening day as slow and steady ultimately reaped rewards.It is difficult to know whether Ballance is a genuine Ashes contender. His stats are overwhelmingly
  
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• New Zealand aim to put underdogs tag to rest for final time at World Cup

  13-07-2019 19:14
  • ‘England rightly deserve to be favourites’ – Kane Williamson
  • ‘Whatever dog we are, it’s important we focus on the cricket’In New Zealand, preparations for the World Cup final have been well advanced for months. The only problem is those plans are for another tournament, with rugby’s blue-riband event in Japan in September the focus of attention before the cricketers took a nation by surprise to reach Sunday’s Lord’s showpiece.Un
  
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• England and New Zealand battle to be Cricket World Cup trophy’s new name | Vic Marks

  13-07-2019 19:00
  Black Caps are underdogs but the Lord’s pitch could offer bowlers the chance to disrupt excellence of Bairstow and RoyAfter 27 years of misery brought about by unrelenting cock‑ups whenever the cricketing nations of the world have come together, England now have another go at winning the one-day trophy that matters.All was quiet here on the eve of the match except in the real tennis court behind the pavilion, which has been transformed into a press room. There was not a spare seat to
  
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• New Zealand’s cricket fans also know the pain of seizing defeat from the jaws of victory

  13-07-2019 18:59
  Kiwis hope a win for the Black Caps will exorcise the demons of their 1992 defeat by PakistanSimon Day can still remember the feeling of nausea and utter helplessness that can only be brought about by a crushing cricketing defeat. Day, now 34, was then just a six-year-old boy standing with his grandmother in the car park of Auckland’s Eden Park stadium when New Zealand lost the 1992 cricket World Cup semi-final against Pakistan.For three-quarters of the game New Zealand had looked like the
  
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• Eoin Morgan says England World Cup victory would inspire the nation

  13-07-2019 17:59
  • ‘For us to win, around the country it would be awesome’
  • England injury-free going into final against New ZealandEoin Morgan has called on his England players to deliver an iconic sporting moment that inspires the nation by winning their first World Cup at the most famous cricket ground of all.With Lord’s a picture, the weather set fair, the match televised free of charge across Sky and Channel 4, and the only major sporting distraction a handful of motor cars and
  
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• ‘Everything we wished for’: boyhood memories of the first Cricket World Cup final

  13-07-2019 16:08
  In June 1975, Australia and West Indies duked it out in the inaugural Cricket World Cup final. For a 12-year-old obsessive, watching it live felt like a miracleThe World Cup final was quite an occasion, with 26,000 people packed into Lord’s. The players were wearing whites, with no names or numbers on their backs. The bowling was opened, for Australia, by Dennis Lillee and Jeff Thomson, a pair to strike fear into any opponent, yet no batsman felt the need for a helmet. Clive Lloyd of West
  
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• ‘We ran out of gas’: England’s Cricket World Cup final losers remember

  13-07-2019 15:23
  David Gower, Mike Gatting and Alec Stewart recall their painful defeats and give their verdict on Sunday’s finalLord’s: West Indies, 286-9, beat England, 194, by 92 runs Viv Richards (138) and Collis King (86) help West Indies rebuild from 99-4. Geoff Boycott and Mike Brearley put on 129 for the first wicket but too slowly and Joel Garner’s 5-38 leads a rout. Related: First World Cup transfixed England but set tone for 44 years of hurt | Matthew EngelContinue reading...
  
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• World Cup is a summer blockbuster, but cricket’s quieter soap opera still enthrals | Tanya Aldred

  13-07-2019 14:42
  The international tournament has more flash, but the county scene continues to charm and entrance its devoteesRoll up, roll up, here comes the Cricket World Cup, if only for one more day. In her high heels and tail-feathers, she jiggles past smiling, waving, bowing this way and that. She sings, plays air guitar, and speaks in CAPITAL letters at all times. She swallows sixes, dot balls, yorkers and spits them out into video clips. She dines out on youthful impetuosity and career-ending mistakes,
  
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• World Cup is a summer blockbuster, but cricket’s quieter soap opera still enthralls | Tanya Aldred

  13-07-2019 14:42
  The international tournament has more flash, but the county scene continues to charm and entrance its devoteesRoll up, roll up, here comes the Cricket World Cup, if only for one more day. In her high heels and tail-feathers, she jiggles past smiling, waving, bowing this way and that. She sings, plays air guitar, and speaks in CAPITAL letters at all times. She swallows sixes, dot balls, yorkers and spits them out into video clips. She dines out on youthful impetuosity and career-ending mistakes,
  
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• County cricket: Yorkshire v Somerset, Essex v Warwicks and more – live!

  13-07-2019 12:09
  Follow the action from seven County Championship matchesEngland aim to inspire youth in manner of 2005 AshesAnd you can tweet Graham or comment below the line 11.09am BST Play at Old Trafford was preceded by a minute’s silence in memory of former Lancashire captain Jack Bond, who died on Friday aged 87. Glenn Maxwell is back in the Red Rose team after World Cup duty with Australia. Sussex are batting first having won the toss. 10.52am BST Uncontested tosses here at Headingley, so Somerset
  
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• First World Cup transfixed England but set tone for 44 years of hurt | Matthew Engel

  13-07-2019 11:00
  Following failure in 1975, England assumed the cricket world would be small enough to conquer eventually. They’re still waiting but now have their best chance yetJune 1975. On Monday the 2nd it snowed: a full inch at Buxton, wreaking havoc with Derbyshire v Lancashire; flurries outside my bedroom in Northamptonshire; the odd flake at Lord’s.By the Thursday the weather had perked up and the people of Britain felt cheery enough to vote Yes to staying in the Common Market. On the Saturd
  
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• World Cup final is England's moment – but has the ECB dropped the ball?

  13-07-2019 10:00
  Organisers have done a fine job engaging existing cricket fans but outside the bubble, most are still oblivious to the sportYorkmead, in Hall Green, south Birmingham, is a state school much like any other. It’s a mixed, medium-sized, red-brick, with just under 500 infants and juniors. Only, listen to the teachers describe playtimes there, and it’s clear that in at least little detail, it’s entirely unusual.“The children here all love cricket,” says the Head of PE, H
  
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