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The Women’s ODI World Cup will be removed from a paywall after Alyssa Healy labelled the Nine Network’s failure to pick up the event as a “slap in the face”.Healy and fellow players were left annoyed on Sunday morning when it was confirmed that Nine had purchased simulcast rights from Fox to broadcast the next two men’s World Cups. However missing from the release was March’s Women’s ODI World Cup in New Zealand. That prompted Healy to offer up 20 vouchers to steaming platform Kayo for followers on social media.Foxtel have since confirmed to AAP they made the call on Sunday to make it part of their “freebies pack”, meaning viewers will be able to watch it on Kayo without a subscription.The move will please both cricket fans and players, after both Healy and Rachael Haynes criticised the move.”It’s a little bit of a slap in the face to say that we’re not commercially viable,” Healy said. “That someone doesn’t want to stick their hand up and say, ‘we’re going to put this on the telly so that everyone can watch it’. It’s a little bit hard to take in that regard.”Not having it on free-to-air excludes a fair chunk of our population who don’t want to pay or can’t afford to pay for subscription TV.”Under the broadcast structure, Foxtel purchases the rights to all ICC tournaments from the ICC’s global partner Star Sports.Fox can then on-sell the rights to free-to-air broadcasters, which is how Nine picked up the rights to this year’s Men’s T20 World Cup and next year’s ODI World Cup.Nine also simulcast the 2020 Women’s T20 World Cup in Australia, attracting 825,000 viewers for the final as well as criticism for placing it on secondary channel 9GEM while Married At First Sight was on the main channel.”I think people get obsessed with bums on seats and numbers at the ground,” Healy said. “But the reality of modern day sport at the minute is that’s not realistic for people to get there and watch the games live.”So for us it’s probably more relevant the TV audiences that we’re getting and even just looking the other night I think the first T20 here in Adelaide actually got really good number of of people watching the game considering we were fighting Nick Kyrgios for TV time.”AAP sought comment from Nine on Sunday if they had been offered the rights to broadcast the Women’s World Cup, but did not receive a direct answer.”Nine’s sub license agreement with Foxtel only includes rights to the Men’s T20 World Cup,” a Channel Nine spokesperson said in reply.The removal of the paywall subsequently came at the same time Haynes called for change.”It sends a really powerful message to see our female athletes have an opportunity to share in the spotlight,” Haynes said. “The visibility is extremely important. I am disappointed it’s not on free-to-air TV in Australia.”Meanwhile Nine confirmed it will screen every game involving Aaron Finch’s side at this year’s men’s T20 World Cup, which is being staged in Australia from October 16 to November 13.The network has flagged it will broadcast “other big match-ups”, likely to include a blockbuster between India and Pakistan at the MCG on October 23.Every match at the two World Cups will be screened on Foxtel and Kayo.Last year’s Men’s T20 World Cup, where Australia won the title for the first time, was not available on free-to-air in the country because when the initial broadcast deal was signed it was due to be a Champions Trophy event.

MS Dhoni, Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah, Sunil Narine, Andre Russell and Glenn Maxwell are among some of the big names that the existing franchises have decided to retain for IPL 2022.Following is a list of names that ESPNcricinfo has confirmed as of Monday evening. The order they appear in is not as per IPL retention list.Chennai Super Kings: Ravindra Jadeja, MS Dhoni, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Moeen Ali.
Kolkata Knight Riders: Sunil Narine, Andre Russell, Varun Chakravarthy, Venkatesh Iyer
Sunrisers Hyderabad: Kane Williamson
Mumbai Indians: Rohit Sharma, Jasprit Bumrah
Royal Challengers Bangalore: Virat Kohli, Glenn Maxwell
Delhi Capitals: Rishabh Pant, Prithvi Shaw, Axar Patel, Anrich Nortje
Rajasthan Royals: Sanju Samson
Several franchises are still finalising their retention list with the IPL deadline closing at 12pm IST on Tuesday. Recently the IPL, which will be a 10-team league from the 2022 season, had enhanced the auction purse to INR 90 crore while setting various retention slabs. The existing franchises can retain a total of four players (max. two overseas) while the two new unnamed franchise – to be based in Lucknow and Ahmedabad – can buy upto three players each from the pool after the original eight teams have made their retentions.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

In case a franchise retains four players, INR 42 crore would be deducted from the total purse. For three retentions the purse would shrink by INR 33 crore, while for two retentions it would reduce by INR 24 crore and in case of one retention INR 14 crore would be deducted from the purse.Earlier this month, Dhoni had expressed the hope of playing his last T20I in Chennai. The Super Kings have brought him one step closer to that by retaining him ahead of the mega auction in 2022. Having won the title last year, the franchise has kept hold of another of its best performers in Ruturaj Gaikwad. The 24-year old opener was the highest run-getter in 2021 with a tally of 635 and his partnership with Faf du Plessis provided the basis of their newfound hit-from-ball-one batting plan. And while the South African might also have been considered as an option to retain, the management preferred the all-round talents of Moeen Ali.Much as he had said while giving up the captaincy, Virat Kohli will remain with Royal Challengers Bangalore. He has represented them since the start of the IPL in 2008 and was one of only two players the franchise chose to hold of, along with Maxwell.Rookie sensation Venkatesh Iyer will stay at Kolkata Knight Riders after a stellar season that also fast tracked him into the Indian T20I side. As a hard-hitting batter and bowler capable of withstanding even the pressure of the death overs, he was expected to fetch a huge price in the auction but it turns out he didn’t even need the auction for that.

Shakib Al Hasan has been ruled out of Bangladesh’s remaining matches in the T20 World Cup because of a hamstring injury. Shakib has not recovered sufficiently from the injury he picked up in his left leg during the game against West Indies on Friday, and after a 48-hour observation period, the team medical staff decided to rule him out.”Shakib sustained a left lower hamstring strain while fielding during the match against the West Indies,” team doctor Debashis Chowdhury said in a statement. “In clinical examination it was diagnosed as an injury of Grade 1 intensity. He is ruled out from participation in the last two matches of the tournament and until further review.”Related

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Bangladesh’s star allrounder pulled up when chasing a ball in the fifth over of the match. He went off the field briefly at the time but returned to complete his four overs, even though he hobbled around and was spotted clutching the back of his left leg on occasion.Shakib later opened the innings, for the first time in international cricket, in a bid to use his physical limitations during the powerplay, but visibly limped while taking singles before being dismissed for 9.Bangladesh, after getting through the first round of the competition, have struggled, losing all their three games so far. Qualifying for the knockouts looks improbable for them anyway, and Shakib’s absence can only make things tougher for them.Wicketkeeper-batter Nurul Hasan is another injury worry – he missed the West Indies game with a a lower midriff injury. The team doctor has asked him to rest till November 1.Bangladesh’s next match is against South Africa on November 2, and their last Super 12s game is against Australia on November 4. They are scheduled to play three T20Is and two Tests against Pakistan shortly after the T20 World Cup.

A lot of Pakistan’s success is built on a bowling line-up that has more to offer than an Amazon sale. Shaheen Afridi brings the swing. Haris Rauf brings the pace. Hasan Ali brings the hustle. Imad Wasim brings the control. And Shadab Khan brings the magic. New Zealand went up against all of that and came away battered and bruised, their total of 134 never quite enough.Pressure tells
Pakistan were in control of the game ever since they won the toss and chose to bowl. Eleven of the 20 overs they bowled went for six runs or fewer.New Zealand tried their best to disrupt a bowling line-up in prime form. They made Daryl Mitchell open the batting for the first time in his professional career. It didn’t work. They punted on James Neesham at No. 4. It didn’t work.The pressure that kept piling on them even had an effect on their captain. Kane Williamson, after nudging a back of a length ball into the off side, set off for a single that he normally never would have. But here, with all run-making avenues blocked, he took a few too many paces down the pitch and was sent packing by a Hasan Ali direct hit.New Zealand were in the middle of a decent sequence at the time, smashing four fours and a six in nine balls. Since that wicket, in the 13th over, there were only three further boundaries.

Watch highlights on ESPN+

If you are in the USA, watch the Pakistan vs New Zealand highlights on ESPN+ here in English, and here in Hindi

Pace is pace yaar
Rauf began the game with a 149 kph yorker that literally took Martin Guptill out of the game. He survived that ball but wouldn’t field in the second innings. High pace is a point of difference in T20 cricket. It’s the reason Pakistan invested in a bowler who only turned professional a mere three years ago.And while Rauf can set the speed gun on fire, here three of his four wickets came through slower deliveries. It was a sign of his evolution and an understanding of the conditions in Sharjah. One of his balls – at 149 kph – was lashed for four by Mitchell Santner in the 20th over. So, he pulled his pace back. The batter was through with his shot early. The stumps were in all kinds of disarray. And Sharjah kept screaming “Haaaaris! Haaaaris! Haaaaaris!”The end
A traditional strength of New Zealand’s – fielding – and one of a more recent vintage – Ish Sodhi’s legspin – allowed this game the veneer of a contest. Pakistan went into the last five overs needing 44 to win. And in conditions that were slow and low that tends to be a tough ask unless someone goes berserk.So Asif Ali wound up those big strong arms of his and launched the second and third balls of the 17th over clean out of the park. He came into the World Cup on the back of a woeful CPL. But here he was dismantling one of New Zealand’s best fast bowlers in Tim Southee to usher his team to a flawless victory.Pakistan have played 13 T20Is in the UAE since 2016. They have now won every single one of them. If they keep this up, there’s going to be a nice, shiny trophy just waiting for them.

It has been a “disruptive sort of season”, according to Delhi Capitals’ head coach Ricky Ponting, but it has worked out well for his team in at least a couple of ways: they are up at No. 2 on the table and their captain Rishabh Pant who is getting better with each passing day, and the gap between IPL 2021 Part 1 and Part 2 means Shreyas Iyer, who Ponting feels makes “the make-up of our team look a little bit more complete”, is back from his shoulder injury and ready to do his thing again.”I am absolutely delighted to have Shreyas back into our line-up,” Ponting said in a press interaction on the eve of Capitals’ first match in the UAE leg of the tournament, against Sunrisers Hyderabad on Wednesday. “It was devastating for him and the team when he hurt his shoulder just before the start of the IPL earlier in the year. He is a world-class player, and he has been an exceptional player for Delhi Capitals for a long time now. Him slotting back into our line-up, I think it makes the make-up of our team look a little bit more complete.Related

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“The first part of the tournament, as well as we played – we won six of our eight games – our overall balance didn’t quite feel like it was just right. But Shreyas coming back in now, it does give us the opportunity to play the two overseas fast bowlers, which we had [done] successfully in the past.”We know that [Kagiso] Rabada and [Anrich] Nortje are world-class performers, and have done well when they have played together for Delhi Capitals as well. So it does give us that option, but at the end of the day, we still need to pick the best playing XI. We have someone like Avesh Khan, Ishant Sharma, Umesh Yadav and Amit Mishra as well; any of those guys can slot into our XI, and it ends up being a really well-balanced team.”In Iyer’s absence, either Pant or Steven Smith slotted in at No. 3 after Shikhar Dhawan and Prithvi Shaw, with Marcus Stoinis and Shimron Hetmyer completing the batting line-up on most occasions. Of the lot, Ponting has high expectations of Stoinis, who has done the job for Capitals in the past too, and gives the XI a lot of depth with his versatility.”He is very highly regarded here at Delhi Capitals, he’s actually had a lot of big impact on a lot of the games he has played for us in the last season and a half, and I think he has the talent and the capabilities to be one of the better allrounders in world cricket, certainly in the white-ball format,” Ponting said. “We use him in any number of different roles. We saw in the IPL final that we played last year, he opened the batting in that one [but scored a first-ball duck], we know that he can open the batting, we know that he can bat at five or six, and finish off games, and we know that he can chip in with the ball and take some handy wickets. And he is very good in the field.”So with Rishabh four, Stoinis five, Hetmyer six, we’ve got lot of finishing power. If the top order can continue to do the job they did in the first part of the tournament, and obviously having Shreyas Iyer back in our group as well, it makes that batting line-up look really strong and really deep.”Ponting: ‘Pant’s level of maturity in the last couple of seasons has gone through the roof’
And then there is Pant. He has 213 runs from eight innings this IPL, the runs coming at 35.50 and a strike rate of 131.48. Since the end of the first leg of this year’s IPL, he has had a mediocre run with the bat, though all of it has been in Test cricket, in the WTC final against New Zealand and then against England.Rishabh Pant took over as Delhi Capitals captain this season after Shreyas Iyer hurt his shoulder•BCCI/IPL

“I think his level of maturity in the last couple of seasons has gone through the roof,” Ponting said of his captain. “When I first came here, Rishabh was just starting to burst on to the scene, if you like, and I made a pretty big call in the Australian summer last year when Rishabh finally made his way back into the Test team, that I felt there and then that we were going to see the unearthing of someone who could be a star Test-match player for India for some time, and what he has done since then, the last 18 months now, in the international stage is nothing short of sensational. And I could see that coming. Because I could see how much his game had developed, I could see how much he had matured, and I could also see how much he wanted to be in every Indian team. Now I think it is going to take a very good player to knock him out of one of those positions in any of those three teams.”When he wasn’t captain [at the Capitals], he was an exceptional vice-captain. He has taken over the reins for this IPL and he has done a terrific job so far, and I have enjoyed every moment of working alongside him, as I have with all the rest of the boys. We are all striving for something special around the Delhi Capitals franchise. We got close last year, making it to the final. But this year we want to go one step further. And obviously Rishabh is going to be a big part of that.”For his part, Pant is aware of what is expected of him, and as far as he is concerned, he can only do it by being himself, and by making himself slightly better as a person.”I just try to keep the environment light,” Pant said. “I am open to anyone in the team. If anyone has any problem, you can come and discuss it with me, or Ricky, for anything at any point of time. We have a good mix of youth and experience in the team, which [will] help us going forward all the time, and we stick to our basics, our processes, and everything will follow.”As a skipper, I have learnt from Ricky that you have to treat everyone equally, whether he be a senior or a junior, even the coaches. If you respect each and every player in the team, it’s going to be a good combination because when you start respecting your players and support staff around you, special things happen. If you respect them, they are going to give everything, whatever they have, for you. As a skipper, that’s the only thing you want. That whatever you want the team to do, they just stand by you each and every time.”

Members of the public will not be allowed to bring alcohol into Lord’s for the rest of the Hundred in an attempt to create a family-friendly atmosphere following feedback from the first two matchdays at the ground.According to MCC’s ground regulations, fans are allowed to bring in “small quantities of alcohol” – either a bottle of wine or champagne, two cans or bottles of beer or cider, or two cans of premixed aperitifs – to games at Lord’s.But that right has been waived for the rest of the tournament, starting with Sunday’s fixtures between London Spirit and Southern Brave – though MCC members will still be allowed to bring alcohol into the ground. A cap of two alcoholic drinks per transaction has also been introduced, and all public bars will close at the start of the run chase in the men’s match.Ticket-holders for Thursday night’s fixtures against Trent Rockets were told via email that “following feedback from last night’s match, we have agreed to change some of the policies around alcohol at Lord’s”.”The Hundred is a tournament designed for families and children and we hope these measures will allow everyone who comes to the Home of Cricket to feel welcome, safe and have a great day out,” the email said. “Cricket is a game for all and we want the next generation of cricket fans to love and be inspired by the sport.”MCC has already stripped back its stringent dress code within the pavilion during Hundred matchdays, removing the stipulation for members and their guests to wear collared shirts, jackets or blazers, tailored trousers and formal shoes.

The BCCI has pushed back the start of the 2021-22 Ranji Trophy from November 16 this year to January 5 next year to ensure the 38 participating teams have more time to prepare for red-ball cricket. The move follows a request from several associations to be given more time to prepare for the premier first-class competition, which was shelved in 2020-21 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. The competition will now end on March 20, 2022.Related

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In a revised domestic calendar sent out to the state associations, the BCCI has accommodated the 50-over Vijay Hazare Trophy for much of the period the Ranji Trophy was originally set to run. This means both the senior men’s white-ball tournaments will be held before the first-class season. The T20 Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy that kicks off the senior men’s calendar will run from October 27 to November 22, with the Hazare Trophy being staged from December 1-29.The women’s one-day competition, the season’s original curtain raiser, will now begin on October 20, instead of September 21. This will be followed by a four-team Challenger Trophy for women, aimed at providing more game time to India’s top players as well as the fringe players with an eye on the 2022 women’s World Cup in New Zealand.The domestic season will culminate with the CK Nayudu Trophy, which is now an Under-25 tournament instead of Under-23. The move will especially benefit those players who lost out 18 months of age-group cricket because of the pandemic. This tournament will be played from January 6 to April 2. In recent times, the tournament has been seen as a feeder for the Ranji Trophy.Ranji Trophy format tweaked; players unhappy
According to the revised schedule, the 38 Ranji Trophy teams will now be slotted into six groups: five Elite (six teams each) and one Plate (eight teams). Each of the Elite group toppers will secure direct entry into the quarter-finals. The second-placed teams from each of the five Elite Groups and the topper of the Plate group will play three pre-quarter-finals to decide the other qualifiers.While the format adds competitive edge while also making it sleeker, it also has a flip side to it. As per the earlier schedule, teams were divided into three Elite Groups and one Plate group, with Elite teams having a minimum of eight first-class games, nine in case of Plate.The reduction to five league games in the current format also potentially leads to reduced earnings, unless the BCCI’s apex committee, formed to look into the issue of player compensation, announces a significant pay hike.So far, the players haven’t heard from the board about delayed compensation for cricket missed in 2020-21 either.Under-19 players to get an extra year
In line with not wanting to deny Under-19 players a crack at junior cricket’s biggest prize – the Under-19 World Cup – the BCCI has ensured Under-19 players will be handed an extra year to make their case for the World Cup, slated to be held in the Caribbean early next year.As per the BCCI’s existing rules, a player can compete in Under-19 cricket for a maximum of four seasons. This rule has been tweaked to accommodate a fifth season to ensure something of a level-playing field for players who lost out more than a year because of the pandemic.Meanwhile, the inclusion of the Vijay Merchant Trophy for the Under-16 boys removes any uncertainty around the tournament owing to the absence of a vaccination programme for those aged 18 or less. While no dates have been announced yet, the tournament is expected to take place in November-December 2021.Cap on players, support staff
In an email to the state associations, the BCCI has stipulated that each team can have a maximum of 30 members, comprising at least 20 players. The number of support staff has been capped at ten. Teams have also been asked to appoint a physician, over and above the regular staff cap, for Covid-19-related issues and emergencies.

Liton Das may have ended up five runs short of a maiden Test century, but he overcame one mental barrier during his day-one innings in the one-off Test against Zimbabwe, according to Bangladesh’s new batting coach Ashwell Prince. Das was among three batters to cross fifty and help Bangladesh recover twice, after they had slipped to 8 for 2 and then 132 for 6.Das added 138 for the seventh wicket with Mahmudullah to move Bangladesh towards a position of respectability, but he missed out on a personal milestone when he holed out to fine leg off Donald Tiripano shortly before the second new ball was due.Prince, who is with the Bangladesh set-up only for this Zimbabwe tour, said Das had taken a step towards fixing an issue that’s dogged him through his career so far – of suffering breaks in concentration when set at the crease.”During some of our conversations during the week, he shared that sometimes he gives his wicket away in the thirties or forties, due to lack of concentration,” Prince said. “I told him, if he can bat for more than three hours, forgetting about the score which is on 30 or 40, he’d be close to a hundred. I would like to see how many hours he batted today. We were all quite disappointed for him that he didn’t get the hundred. I think this is a good learning for him.”Prince said Mahmudullah played a crucial role during the partnership, since Bangladesh needed a calm head with the experience of facing such situations in the past. Mahmudullah and Das came close to surpassing the highest-ever seventh-wicket stand against Zimbabwe, but fell four runs short of the mark achieved by Nicky Boje and Prince himself, back in 2005 at Centurion.”Mahmudullah played a really crucial innings for the team,” Prince said. “He was the perfect person for that job at the time. He and Liton Das really complemented one another really nicely. He was watchful, and Liton maneuvered the ball around. At 132 for 6, it was a big partnership for the team.”Prince also praised captain Mominul Haque for his composure, both mentally and technically as a batter. Mominul made 70 to steady Bangladesh after Blessing Muzarabani had rocked them with two early strikes. “The team had lost some early wickets,” Prince said. “It was a crucial period for us. Mominul’s calmness gives a lot of confidence to the dressing room.”His positions were very strong on the crease. He was comfortable at the crease. He is an experienced player, a very good Test player.”Bangladesh, Prince felt, weren’t out of the woods yet, but hoped the lower order could rally around the still unbeaten Mahmudullah.”Ideal scenario for Bangladesh would be for the No 10 and 11 to provide support to the one out-and-out batsman at the crease, Mahmudullah,” Prince said. “Nobody knows how good a score is, until both teams have batted on the pitch. So we can’t take for granted that anything between 290-320 is a good score. The best situation for Bangladesh would be to get as many runs we can get.”

Teams can take a squad of 33 players to cover 15 starting positions in rugby’s next World Cup, and 23 for 11 spots in football’s, but cricket diverges from the norm. England will take a 15-man squad to the T20 World Cup this winter – albeit with the possibility of a couple of reserves as a Covid precaution – and as a result, the ability of back-up players to cover a range of roles is crucial.With that in mind, Liam Livingstone has done his chances of inclusion no harm at all in the first two games of their T20I series against Sri Lanka in Cardiff. An innings of 29 not out off 26 balls and four tight overs of liquorice-all-sort spin that have cost 19 runs do not demand retention in themselves, but have demonstrated the flexibility that Livingstone would add to a touring party as a utility player.”It’s something that I pride myself on, being as versatile as I can,” he said after the second T20I, in which he won the match award after steering England home from No. 6. “It’s something that’s rolled into my bowling as well, trying to bowl both legspin and offspin to give people different options [and] it’s the same with my batting, trying to make myself a player who can bat all the way from No. 1 to No. 8.”While he has made a reputation for himself as a power-hitter who deals in sixes – in last year’s Big Bash, he scored a higher percentages of his runs in sixes (39.4%) than anyone else in the top 25 run-scorers – Livingstone’s innings on Thursday night demonstrated his willingness to adapt, with a single ramped six standing out alongside a series of clips and pushes into gaps to suit the situation and build a partnership with Sam Billings. Four years on from a pair of frenetic innings in his first two T20Is, he looked a different player.Importantly, given England’s logjam of top-three options, it also demonstrated an ability to bat in the middle order. Twenty-five of Livingstone’s last 26 innings in domestic T20 cricket for Lancashire and Perth Scorchers have come as an opener, with Jos Buttler even moving down to No. 4 in order to accommodate him at the top in this year’s T20 Blast, but there is little chance of him batting there in an England shirt.While he will have limited opportunity to do so before the start of the World Cup, Livingstone should consider shuffling down the order for one of his clubs if he can – potentially for Birmingham Phoenix in the Hundred – in order to gain more experience in the role, though batting in the middle order for Peshawar Zalmi and Cape Town Blitz two winters ago meant he had something to lean back on.”I batted at No. 4 and 5 in the PSL and in the South African T20 [MSL],” he said. “I guess that’s the reason I go away and play in these competitions: trying to get experience of batting in different roles, which has obviously helped me coming into an England side, batting in a position I’m not really used to.”But it is with the ball that Livingstone is particularly multi-talented, as he has demonstrated in this series. He generally bowls legbreaks to right-handers and offbreaks to left-handers, and while not a prodigious turner of the ball, he gets enough spin both ways to keep batters guessing and forcing them to watch him carefully out of the hand.Related

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• England add element of intrigue to victory with use of Adil Rashid

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• The big picture is a turn-off as England learn World Cup lessons at a cost

“It’s certainly advantageous isn’t it?” Buttler said after Wednesday night’s game. “It’s a fantastic skill to have, to be able to bowl offspin and legspin to international standard. We will potentially see that come into the game more and more. He’s an exciting package, a great guy to have in your squad and your XI.”Livingstone is not the finished article with the ball. Two of the three most expensive overs of his T20 career have come at crunch moments, confirming Lancashire’s exits in the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the last two Blast seasons when Ravi Bopara and Dan Christian took him down, but he insisted that those experiences have been beneficial in the long run.”[My bowling] has always been well-regarded at Lancashire,” he said. “I’ve obviously had a couple of tough moments with it over the last couple of years, but they are the moments that have made me a better bowler. It’s something I’ve worked hard on for this sort of opportunity, to push my way into a team as someone that can offer something in all three facets of the game.”As an excellent outfielder too, Livingstone’s case for inclusion in the World Cup squad is strong: even if he is unlikely to start once Ben Stokes returns from injury, the fact he offers some overs as a second – or even third – spinner, can cover a number of batting roles and is a good option to come on as a substitute fielder mean that he has quickly become England’s Mr Versatile.

Yorkshire 150 (Garton 3-25) and 305 (Ballance 74, Lyth 66, Carson 5-85) beat Sussex 221 (Haines 86, Patterson 4-26) and 186 (Bess 6-53) by 48 runsYorkshire took just 70 minutes to take the four remaining Sussex wickets and complete their second successive LV= Insurance County Championship win of the season at the 1st Central County Ground in Hove.England offspinner Dom Bess took the final wicket to finish with figures of 6 for 53 as Yorkshire won by 48 runs. They collected 19 points against Sussex’s four. It was always an unlikely run chase for Sussex but they – and in particular their captain Ben Brown – made a fight of it.”It was a fantastic win, particularly from where we were on the first day,” Andrew Gale, Yorkshire’s first team coach, said. “We didn’t do ourselves justice in the first innings but we showed great character and resilience after that. We won by a decent margin in the end and I’m really proud of them.Related

• Dom Bess meets his calling with maiden Yorkshire five-for

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“The batting is an issue at the moment but to still be winning games is very pleasing. But we have got to start to put big first-innings scores on the board.”Sussex started the fourth day on 136 for 6, requiring a further 99 runs for victory, with Brown unbeaten on 26 and new batter Ollie Robinson yet to face a ball following George Garton’s dismissal from the final delivery of the previous day.Yorkshire opened up with Steven Patterson from the Cromwell Road End and Bess from the Sea End, and with the second ball of the 59th over – the seventh of the morning – they broke through with the wicket of Robinson. The batter pushed forward to a delivery from Patterson which nipped back and caught him in front of his off stump. Robinson’s 17-ball stay had yielded just six runs.Yorkshire knew they were through to the Sussex tail but Brown and Jack Carson, the offspinner who impressed with a five-for in Yorkshire’s second innings, defied them with a stand of 35. Carson got a thick edge for four off Patterson and repeated the trick when the bowler was replaced by Jordan Thompson.Brown, meanwhile, provided the best stroke of the morning when he drove a full-length delivery from Thompson through the covers for four.But the intervention of England Test captain Joe Root with the ball ended the eighth-wicket stand just when Sussex hopes were beginning to rise again. Root replaced Bess and with his third delivery he made the second breakthrough of the morning as Carson edged to Adam Lyth at first slip for 18, leaving Sussex 180 for 8 and still 55 shy of victory.Sussex lost their ninth in the next over when Thompson plucked out Brown’s middle stump. The Sussex captain had batted for two hours and 21 minutes and faced 111 balls for his 46.And it was all over in the next over when Bess, who had just been hit over mid-on for four by Henry Crocombe, had the batter caught by the leaping David Willey at short midwicket.”It was disappointing to lose but we played some good cricket and came out of this game with a lot of pride,” Brown said. “We were up against a seriously good Yorkshire side with a number of international players and for our young team it was nip and tuck all the way.”Tom Haines looked good again and Jack Carson went toe to toe with the England offspinner Dom Bess. We could have got more runs in the first innings but a few things didn’t go our way.”