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Australia and India hold a sizeable lead, but New Zealand could still push them

Alagappan Muthu13-Dec-2020″I’m not in a huge rush to go back to Lord’s…”Trent Boult was a joking, of course, which is probably not the worst way to look back on that raucous night on July 14, 2019, when not only was he in charge of the last over of the most dramatic World Cup final, he then had to bowl the Super Over as well. And though technically he didn’t really lose, he still had to watch the other team take away the Cup.Those scars may never fully heal but with another final scheduled at Lord’s in 2021 – one that will crown the first ever Test match champion in cricket history – Boult is willing to go all over again.

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“I’m not in a huge rush to go back to Lord’s but obviously it’ll be a special occasion,” he said at the end of the third day’s play in the second Test against West Indies in Wellington. “It’ll be very, very unique. Obviously [it] hasn’t been done before in a sense of having a final kind of playoff Test match. But it’s why you play the game. It’s why you put the hours in to lift those trophies in the end so I can’t think of a better bunch of guys to try and lift it with than this Test side.”New Zealand will have to finish in the top two of the World Test Championship table to book a spot for Lord’s next year. They are currently in fourth place but are favourites to wrap up the series against West Indies 2-0, with the opposition six down and still 85 runs shy of parity while following on. The next challenge begins on Boxing Day with two Tests against Pakistan and at the start of the new year they’ll take on Bangladesh as well.As things stand, Australia and India are a lot closer to playing in that final, thanks to the sizeable lead they have over everyone else. But, given all of New Zealand’s upcoming matches are at home and that they’ve only lost five Tests there in the last 10 years, they will fancy their chances of getting enough points to be pushing for those top-two spots.For now, their focus remains on West Indies, whose lower order mounted serious resistance once more and, with a little help from bad light, pushed the Wellington Test into the fourth day.”We would’ve loved to keep going,” Boult said. “But [we] can’t really control that. I think we were in a great position and it’s all set up nicely tonight. It’ll be nice obviously to look forward to get a nice hard new ball in our hands. Some good resiliency from Jason Holder; obviously good little partnership. It’s going to be a big one to break in the morning. Hopefully we can scratch out a couple before the new ball and set it up nicely. Probably don’t need to go [looking for wickets] too much. Keep it nice and simple as we have throughout the innings and draw the error and I’m pretty confident we can do it.”New Zealand have enjoyed some excellent individual performances over the past few days. Tim Southee picked up his 11th five-for and is moving ever closer to 300 Test wickets. And Boult is hot on his heels with both of them are eyeing Sir Richard Hadlee at New Zealand’s summit.”There’s a race to 431 that would be quite nice,” Boult said. “I really enjoy bowling with him [Southee]. We’ve been good mates for a number of years now. We complement [each other] very nicely at times in our career. He’s in some hot form. He’s been bowling really well with the red ball and he’s very close. It’s exciting”BJ Watling has been a silent partner helping Southee and Boult achieve those heights, and in the process he too has won a major accolade. With 242 dismissals, he went past England’s Alex Stewart and is now among the 10 most successful Test wicketkeepers of all time.”The Sherriff [Watling], he’s been doing what he does for a long time,” Boult said. “He’s a very passionate man. He’s very passionate about the hat on his head and the team he’s surrounded by. Deserves all the accolades that come his way. He’s one of the guys that works extremely hard on his game and it’s understandable why he’s moving further and further up those lists.”

The 35-year old says he has bigger goals beyond the long-awaited feat of becoming South Africa’s most successful Test bowler

Liam Brickhill in Centurion24-Dec-2018Dale Steyn has spent the last six months on the cusp of becoming the most successful South African Test bowler in history, but he has spent even longer within close striking distance of the record. He passed the 400-wicket mark three-and-a-half years ago, but has only played eight Tests since, and ahead of what should be a record-breaking game against Pakistan on Boxing Day, Steyn insisted he had “a bigger goal” than simply the record to aim for.”I’m just looking forward to getting out there,” Steyn said. “I’ve been answering that question about that one wicket for about two years now so we’ve passed that.”Steyn needs just one wicket to go past Shaun Pollock’s 421 Test scalps, a record that has stood for a decade since Pollock played his last Test. Now that he is as fit and hungry as ever, Steyn might be forgiven for putting all his focus into achieving the milestone. But for Steyn, as soon as he takes the wicket that gives him the record, his attention will immediately turn to taking the next one.ALSO READ: Frankly yours, Dale Steyn“I’ve got a lot of wickets in me than just one more,” he said. “I haven’t saved myself to take one more wicket than Polly. There is a bigger goal at the end of the day. It’ll be a beautiful thing to happen for me if it does. These honours are great things to achieve and I’ll be highly honoured. But when I do, I’ll get back to the end of my mark and try and take another one. That’s the plan.”Pollock played 108 Tests to get to 421, while Steyn has reached that mark in just 88 Tests over a career that has spanned 14 years so far. It is Steyn’s remarkable strike rate of 42.0 – the sixth-best of all time among bowlers who have sent down a minimum of 2000 balls – that brought him so quickly to the brink, but that incisiveness was built on bowling express pace, which has brought its own hazards.Steyn was five wickets away from Pollock’s record when he suffered a shoulder injury during South Africa’s tour of Australia in 2016. “Many people don’t know the seriousness of that injury,” he said. “It was a broken arm. You can’t just pick yourself up and start going again. But it was wonderful to have that break. I got a lot closer with my family, something a lot of us struggle with because we’re on the road for so long. I was able to build great relationships with people who are close to me. And travel while I’m still young and come back really excited to play cricket at the highest level. I feel like I’m 23.”Dale Steyn clutches his right shoulder•Getty Images

Incidentally, that’s exactly the age of Steyn’s new-ball partner Kagiso Rabada, who has picked up the mantle of senior bowler while Steyn has fought his way back to full fitness, and is ranked No. 1 in the world among Test bowlers.While the 35-year old Steyn gears up to lead the attack feeling fitter and more fired-up than ever, the injuries to Lungi Ngidi and Vernon Philander have given him and Rabada added responsibility to lead from the front. Steyn warned, however, that no one should forget the impact that the recalled and in-form Duanne Olivier could make.”The onus will be on your bigger players like KG (Rabada) and myself to lead the attack,” he explained. “Duanne has been bowling beautifully, he was the highest wicket-taker in the Mzansi Super League. In the four-day game he played the other days he got a few wickets and even got Faf [du Plessis] out. If he slips under the radar and he comes up trumps with wickets and wins us the game I will not be complaining.”ALSO READ: Bogeyman Steyn returns to claim his recordWhile Rabada and Olivier could be match-winners in their own right, the attention will be on Steyn in Centurion – his former home ground and one at which he has taken 56 wickets in nine Tests at 17.12. Traditionally, it’s a track that encourages fast bowlers, and can be deflating for visiting batsmen unused to South African conditions, and Steyn is happy to be here after the slim pickings of his last Test outing, in Sri Lanka, where he only picked up two wickets across two Tests.”Every time a subcontinent team comes down to South Africa, they look down at the wicket and they’re not familiar with these conditions,” Steyn said. “They look at the wicket and there’s a bit of grass and you feel they’re two down already. It’s definitely not Dubai. I’m the guy that’s going to do that. I’m the guy with the brand-new ball in my hand. So it’s advantage fast bowler at the end of the day.”So I look forward to playing against Pakistan, and I’ve done well against them in the past. I’ve got fond memories of the Wanderers too, where I got 6 for 8. I go through that stuff in my mind to try and boost myself up. But you’ve got to wait till game day to see how this goes.”It’s just nice to have a red ball in my hand again. Sri Lanka was tough conditions for the fast bowlers, but by the looks of things – the way the nets have been playing out in the middle- there is some spice. I am looking forward to getting out there and playing five competitive days of cricket.”

Bangladesh’s stand-in captain, however, was relieved to have scored a hundred and broken a lean run with the bat in Test cricket

Mohammad Isam15-Nov-2018As Bangladesh’s stand-in captain, Mahmudullah has had some interesting post-match reactions. After the 215-run loss to Sri Lanka in February, he defended the batsmen’s attacking approach. After the 151-run loss in Sylhet last week, Mahmudullah questioned the same approach. Now, after Bangladesh’s first Test win in 2018, which was orchestrated by a strong first-innings batting performance, he felt his team had found a template for success in Test cricket.”One must be happy winning a Test match,” Mahmudullah said. “I think we have the right to be happy. We feel really bad in the dressing room when we lose. Nobody sees our tears. We don’t tell anyone. There’s no need for comparison, whether it is happiness or relief.”If we keep playing like we did in the first Test, we shouldn’t be playing Test cricket. But we should be playing if we see our performance in this game, and the mentality we showed.”Mahmudullah did, however, concede that sharing the trophy with Zimbabwe’s Hamilton Masakadza was tough. Given that Bangladesh were playing at home, he said that the aim was always to win the series 2-0.”I think we played poorly in the first Test,” he said. “We always try to win the home series, whether we are playing against Zimbabwe or Australia. Our target was to win both matches in this series, so it was tough sharing the Test series trophy.”But there was relief for Mahmudullah on the personal front – he made his first Test hundred after nearly nine years, an unbeaten third-innings 101 off 122 balls.”I am a bit relieved,” he said. “I hadn’t performed well in the last five Tests. I was struggling in this format. A captain has to perform from the front, so I wanted to add value to my position. I want to be more consistent in this format, and contribute more for the team.”Mahmudullah also hoped the confidence of the rest of the batting unit would return, after their best Test in 10 months. Mushfiqur Rahim made a record-breaking, unbeaten 219 and Mominul Haque reached his third 150-plus score. Mohammad Mithun and Mehidy Hasan also made fifties.”It is a good comeback ahead of the West Indies series,” Mahmudullah said. “Not everyone will do well all the time. Sometimes the top order will make runs, sometimes the middle order. Everyone is trying from their position. I think our batsmen would have gained some confidence from this game, having been a worry for some time.”Bangladesh’s focus now shifts towards their next opponents, West Indies, who hammered them 2-0 in the Test series in the Caribbean in July. Mahmudullah said the upcoming series would be different, especially for the visitors’ fast bowlers in Bangladeshi conditions, though he felt their recent tour of India would have helped their preparation.”We know West Indies’ fast bowlers, since we have played them a few months ago,” he said. “There will always be some difference between pitches in Bangladesh and West Indies. Playing in India must be helpful for them. They are a good side. We have to be prepared, physically and mentally, for tough cricket. It is still different conditions here. We can have positive results if we can use our conditions.”

Two months before the second edition, Salman Iqbal has distanced himself from the tournament and warned Pakistani players against taking part in it

Umar Farooq19-Sep-2018Salman Iqbal, the president of the T10 League, has stepped down from the position two months before the second edition of the tournament, citing “lack of transparency” and lack of “proper systems and monitoring”. He has distanced himself from the venture and warned Pakistani players against taking part in the league.Iqbal, owner of the ARY Group and the Pakistan Super League’s second-most expensive team, Karachi Kings, was a major investor and partner in the T10 League with the UAE-based businessman Shaji ul Mulk. The second edition is set to run from November 23 to December 2. Prominent players like Rashid Khan, Chris Lynn, Brendon McCullum and Andre Russell are among those who have committed to taking part this season. On Monday, the eight franchises – up from six last season – gathered in Dubai for a mini draft to pick their icon players and choose four players to retain from their 2017 squads.The T10 League, a 10-overs-a-side format introduced by private cricket organisers in Sharjah, made its debut late last year, and the success of its opening season has led to an increase from six teams to eight and from a 13-match tournament held over four days to a 28-game event over ten days. The organisers have also hiked the franchise fee from USD 400,000 to USD 1.2 million for the two new teams.”I am resigning from my the position of President T10 league and disassociating myself from all its operations,” Iqbal said in a statement issued on Tuesday. “The reason for my resignation is lack of transparency, unprofessionalism and no proper structure of the league which I have been persistently asking for and can no longer continue without the same.”Private cricket leagues that are not controlled by ICC and have independent players monitoring system, added with lack of policies and procedures may lead to numerous misconducts. I had joined the venture as I felt the need to represent Pakistan in this new format and promote cricket and Pakistani cricketers at different platforms.”Iqbal’s presence was a major factor behind the participation of top Pakistani players in the inaugural season of the T10 League. Originally, PCB wasn’t willing to allow their players to take part since the league directly clashed with the commercial interests of the PSL in the UAE. But Iqbal, despite having a stake in PSL, managed to convinced the then PCB chairman Najam Sethi to let them participate.The PCB thereafter defended the league publicly despite resistance from other PSL teams and went on to allow its 10 highest-paid contracted players to participate. The board also levied a fee of USD 400,000 from the league, and said it would be spent on game development in the country. Sethi also involved the PCB board of governors to lend their support for the T10 league following a request from the Emirates Cricket Board, which runs cricket in the UAE. ICC had also sanctioned the league conditionally.”My prime objective for the league was to safeguard the interest of Pakistani players and promote Pakistani cricket,” Iqbal’s statement said. “With current standing of the league, it is obvious that the league is heading in wrong direction and we can not allow Pakistani players to be misused for vested interests of foreign individuals. Proper systems and monitoring should be in place and controlled by ICC, which safeguards all players and sanctity of the game. I believe it is better for me to part ways with an unsupervised T10 league.”Shaji Ul Mulk, the T10 League chairman, has not responded to ESPNcricinfo’s attempts to contact him for a comment.

Australian legend Matthew Hayden called England “no-hopers” and insisted he didn’t know who James Vince was. You learn something new every day

George Dobell in Brisbane23-Nov-2017The desire to prove his doubters wrong helped inspire James Vince on the first day of the Ashes.Vince, recalled to bat at No. 3 despite a modest season in county cricket, stroked an elegant 83 to ensure England gained a foothold in the first Test. And while he missed out on a maiden Test century, Vince hoped he had earned some respect from those who dismissed him ahead of the series.Matthew Hayden, in particular, should have sat up and taken notice, according to Vince. Hayden, the former Australia batsman, dismissed England as “no hopers” and “a rabble” ahead of the series and insisted he didn’t know who half the team – including Vince – were.It was a remarkable comment bearing in mind that Vince has played seven Tests previously – enough, you would think, for a cricket pundit to have taken notice before passing judgement – and it clearly irritated the England camp.Ben Stokes, the England all-rounder who is currently in England awaiting the outcome of a police investigation, had already called into question Hayden’s quality as a pundit as a result of the comments, while Vince has now revealed he was inspired by such doubters.”If he didn’t know who we were before the game, he probably does now,” Vince said of Hayden after sharing a stand of 125 with fellow “unknown” Mark Stoneman. It was more than England managed in any stand during the Ashes series of 2013-14.”Reading comments like that gives you the motivation to go out there and make a statement,” he said.”A few comments I’ve read said that I’m not ready for Test cricket, so hopefully I’ve proved a few people wrong. It all gives you more inspiration to prove people wrong.”While Vince admitted he was disappointed to miss out on a century – he was run-out by Nathan Lyon after attempting an unwise single – he was able to appreciate it was a good start on his return to Test cricket.”No matter what score you get you always want more,” he said. “It would have been nice to be there at the end of the day, but stuff like that happens in cricket.”It’s great to get off to a good start. If I could have my first go at Test cricket again, I would, but that’s in the past now. I’ve been focused on capitalising on this opportunity and nailing a place in the team. I felt reasonably calm considering the occasion. I tried to enjoy it and maintain focus. I didn’t want them to get on top of me and I thought I got the balance just about right.”I’m sure lying in bed I’ll have a few thoughts about missing out on a century, but if you’d offered me 80-odd before play, I’d have taken it. And we had spoken about getting overs in the bowlers’ legs – what with them only having three seamers – and if we can get through the new ball in the morning, we can built to 300, 350 even 400. The first hour in the morning will dictate how things go.”It was a disappointing way to go. It was a great piece of fielding, but in retrospect I wouldn’t take the run.”Vince defended England’s scoring rate – they scored at 2.43 runs per over – by explaining the pitch was slow and Australia bowled well throughout the day.”The lack of pace made scoring hard,” he said. “Conditions weren’t what we expected – there wasn’t much pace in the wicket, though the ball came on a bit better as the day wore on – and they bowled pretty well.”They would have wanted some more pace in the pitch. But they kept coming all day and the lack of pace made it hard to score runs when they hit their areas. We’ll see how they respond in the morning after all those overs in their legs today.”

While announcing the calendar for the forthcoming domestic season well in advance, the BCCI has omitted Duleep Trophy for 2015-16 season

Amol Karhadkar20-Jul-2015While announcing the calendar for the forthcoming domestic season well in advance, the BCCI has omitted Duleep Trophy for 2015-16 season. According to a top BCCI executive, the inter-zonal first-class tournament has been left out for only one year.

Groups for inter-state tournaments

Ranji Trophy
Group A: Odisha, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Assam, Bengal, Haryana, Vidarbha, Delhi, Karnataka
Group B: Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Mumbai, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Baroda, Railways, Andhra
Group C: Jharkhand, Saurashtra, Hyderabad, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, Services, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir
Vijay Hazare Trophy (domestic one-day competition)
Group A: Punjab, Mumbai, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Rajasthan, Services, Hyderabad [Host association: Hyderabad]
Group B: Karnataka, Railways, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Kerala, Haryana [Host association: Karnataka]
Group C: Odisha, Vidarbha, Delhi, Baroda, Andhra, Tripura, Maharashtra [Host association: Delhi]
Group D: Bengal, Goa, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Saurashtra, Madhya Pradesh [Host association: Saurashtra]
Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy (domestic T20 competition)
Group A: Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Hyderabad, Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Vidarbha [Host association: Vidarbha]
Group B: Punjab, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Saurashtra, Tripura, Kerala, Jammu & Kashmir [Host association: Kerala]
Group C: Madhya Pradesh, Andhra, Delhi, Railways, Baroda, Assam, Goa [Host association: Baroda]
Group D: Mumbai, Odisha, Karnataka, Services, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra [Host association: Odisha]

“It is not cancelled or removed. It is deferred to the start of the next season,” Dr MV Sridhar, general manager of cricket operations, BCCI, told ESPNcricinfo. “Since it has been decided to plan domestic calendar taking India’s international calendar into consideration, it was decided that rather than overlapping the Duleep Trophy with the World Twenty20 in March, it would be apt to postpone it to the start of the 2016-17 season. Since India are set to play 16 Test matches in 2016-17, first-class cricket would get priority and the Duleep Trophy will be played at the start of the season.”For the last three domestic seasons, Duleep Trophy served as the season-opening tournament in October. But with the BCCI opting to advance the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy to avoid a clash with the Indian Premier League, the Duleep Trophy was dropped out of the calendar.Whether cancelled, or removed or postponed, the fact remains that the BCCI has preferred to host one-day and T20 tournaments over the Duleep Trophy, which till early 2000s used to be India’s premier selection tournament. With the Indian team starting to play international cricket virtually round-the-clock, the Duleep Trophy lost its shine and became a platform for fringe players to make a case for selection.Duleep Trophy isn’t the only tournament to have borne the brunt of BCCI’s restructuring. The Deodhar Trophy will be played as a three-team tournament for the second season. The domestic one-day winning team will compete for the trophy against two teams chosen by the national selectors. It would mean that the NKP Salve Challenger Trophy is as good as scrapped. The last two editions of Challenger Trophy were played in the same format as the revised Deodhar Trophy.Even in the past, the BCCI has scrapped domestic tournaments for a season or two. After staging the inaugural Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy in 2006-07, the BCCI had not organised it for the next two years citing lack of a suitable slot in the calendar.

Day-night Test cricket could still be “several years” away, according to the head of the Kookaburra company, who believes a red ball is the only one that can last 80 overs

Cricinfo staff31-Jan-2010Day-night Test cricket could still be “several years” away, according to the head of the Kookaburra company, who believes a red ball is the only one that can last 80 overs. Cricket Australia have asked Kookaburra to deliver a ball that can be used for Test cricket under lights and a pink ball is being trialled over the next week in Futures League matches.The ICC and Cricket Australia are keen to hold day-night Tests as soon as possible but Rob Elliot, Kookaburra’s managing director, said the time-frame could be longer than the authorities wished. He said the main problem was trying to replicate the way a red ball wears over a day’s play.”I know CA are hoping it might be a couple of years, but in all honesty it could be several years,” Elliot told the . “We’ll be doing some trials, but it’s a bit open-ended. If we have to make some further changes, we’ll have to go through the process again and so it will go on until we can give the administrators something that they can live with.”I don’t believe any ball [other than red] has got 80 overs in it. It’s up to administrators to decide what they constitute as being acceptable and what’s not acceptable. It’s going to cost a lot of money and it has already cost a lot of money. I don’t think it’s going to be solved overnight.”The problem with a red ball is its visibility at night. Elliot suggested that one option could be to use two pink balls, one from each end, meaning that by the 80-over mark each ball would only have 40 overs of wear and tear.During the 1990s, yellow and orange balls were tested in Sheffield Shield games and Simon Katich last week said that when he faced the orange ball he felt it performed like a red ball. However, Elliot said the problem with the orange ball was that on television it appeared to develop a “comet-like tail that flared and sometimes got lost in the background”.A Futures League match between South Australia and Western Australia at Adelaide Oval starting on Tuesday will feature pink balls and play will run from 2.30pm to 9.30pm. In the same round of matches, a pink ball will be used in Brisbane for a day game and a white ball will be tested in Melbourne, also for a day game.

Trevor Bayliss, the Sri Lanka coach, has said that setting India a target of “150 on a wearing wicket” was probably the best his team could hope for at this stage

Cricinfo staff04-Dec-2009Trevor Bayliss, the Sri Lanka coach, has said that setting India a target of “150 on a wearing wicket” was probably the best his team could hope for at this stage, after the hosts took a 333-run first innings lead on the third day in Mumbai.”From a win point of view, it just doesn’t look right at the moment but, on day one when there was a bit in the track, we made 366 for 8 having lost a few wickets in the middle,” Bayliss said. “If our top-order batters can get us off to a good start and bat for a long time there is no reason why we can’t score 400 in a day tomorrow. It needs some very hard work and the players I am sure are capable of doing it. Who knows what the wicket will be like on day five?”Sri Lanka had to bat out three overs after India’s declaration on 726 for 9 and they reached 11 for no loss at stumps. Bayliss said the team was looking to their “three big players” and hoped for solid contributions from Nos. 3, 4, and 5 – the out-of-form Kumar Sangakkara, Mahela Jayawardene and Thilan Samaraweera.Bayliss, however, said that he was happy the way Sri Lanka fought back today to capture eight Indian wickets, in a manner similar to the second Test in Kanpur. “I was very happy with the boys – the same as the second Test when we faced 417 for 2 and we came back the next day, taking 225 for 8. It would have been quite easy to have gone for a lot more runs than we did, but we stuck to it and showed a bit of fight and character. We were just up against unbelievable batting from [Virender] Sehwag.””The guys tried most things, different fields, bowling different sides of the wicket but [no matter] where they put the ball he [Sehwag] was skillful enough to put it away into the gaps. It was one of those days you needed 20 fielders out there.”Muttiah Muralitharan, who had gone wicketless and taking a hiding on the second day, made a comeback of sorts on day three. He dismissed Sehwag early and went on to take three more wickets, finishing with 195 for 4. “Murali is very philosophical about things. During his career this is not the first time it’s happened to him,” Bayliss said. “For a guy who has taken so many wickets it has not happened to him very often. He realises that’s what happens in Test cricket on good wickets against very good players. Today Murali got four wickets and showed that he is still able to take wickets at this level.”After a day on which an edge from Rahul Dravid and a close lbw shout against Sachin Tendulkar were both given not out, Bayliss said he did not know why the umpire review system was not being used in this series. Tillakaratne Dilshan, too, was erroneously given out bat-pad in the first innings soon after reaching his century.”The question that’s got to be asked is, why the referral system is being used in every other series barring this one, when the ICC said that it should be used after October 1,” Bayliss said. “No one’s explained to us yet why it’s not being used when it’s being used everywhere else in the world. If Dilshan was able to go and make a big score in the first innings, things might have been a bit different.”

Hundred returnee makes light work of Lancashire to set up Leicestershire clash

ECB Reporters Network25-Aug-2023Miles Hammond blazed his way to a breathtaking maiden List-A century as Gloucestershire trounced Lancashire by eight wickets at Bristol to secure a place in the semi-finals of the Metro Bank One Day Cup.Chasing a modest 178 for victory, the home side reached their target with 25.1 overs to spare thanks to a hard-hitting 109 not out from Hammond, who shared in a match-winning stand of 125 with Ollie Price in a one-sided play-off contest.Lancashire’s bowlers simply had no answer as Hammond helped himself to six sixes and 11 fours in a whirlwind 85-ball knock, while Price contributed 39 in 43 balls to help Gloucestershire secure a last-four showdown against Leicestershire at the Grace Road next Tuesday.Hammond’s innings was made all the more remarkable because he has spent most of the last month running drinks for Birmingham Phoenix in the Hundred. He did not make an appearance for them all season, though was released to play two group games for Gloucestershire.