All posts by h716a5.icu

Many Glasgow Rangers fans have been left lauding some early team news ahead of their game at home to Livingston in the Scottish Premiership tonight.

Speaking in his pre-game press conference ahead of the match, Giovanni van Bronckhorst has revealed that Ryan Jack is now available for selection in the squad, as is Scott Arfield.

While having another player in Arfield back is a boost in itself, members of the Ibrox faithful were particularly pleased with the news regarding Jack, who has been victim to too many injury problems during his time at Ibrox.

He has no doubt been a key part of the team over the years, scoring nine goals and supplying a further nine assists in the Scottish Premiership for the Light Blues, while he made 19 appearances in their title-winning season.

Nonetheless, it will be great just to see him out on the pitch again, having missed 64 matches through injury since the beginning of last season.

Rangers fans on team news

These Gers lauded the early team news as it was shared on Twitter, with one RFC supporter claiming that it was ‘great’:

“A fit Ryan Jack would see us canter to 56.”

Credit: @drummybear

“Great news”

Credit: @walterwalk

“Ryan Jack!!!!!”

Credit: @cameron56689617

“Jack is back”

Credit: @gregmcarthur55

“DE DE NA NA NAAAAAA”

Credit: @1872_KK

“A fit Ryan Jack for the rest of the season is just what we’re needing.”

Credit: @smudginthefunk

In other news, find out what injury update has been bemoaned by Gers here!

West Ham could sign Flamengo striker Gabigol in an exciting initial loan deal in the January transfer window, according to journalist Pete O’Rourke.

The Lowdown: Gabigol shines in Brazil

The 25-year-old has enjoyed a hugely impressive career in his homeland of Brazil, being lauded by one of his country’s all-time great players, Zico, who claimed the striker has ‘everything to be the greatest striker in Flamengo’s history’.

Gabigol has scored 84 goals in just 124 appearances for Flamengo, not to mention netting five times in 17 caps for Brazil.

West Ham have been linked with an audacious January move for the striker with Sky Sports even claiming talks have started, and a fresh update has now emerged regarding their pursuit of him.

The Latest: Journalist backs move

Speaking to Give Me Sport, O’Rourke hinted at a potential temporary move then becoming permanent in the summer:

“I’m sure they’re talking to Flamengo to see if they could try and work out a deal where it’s an initial loan with an obligation to buy.”

The Verdict: Hugely exciting target

Gabigol could feel like a significant signing for the Hammers, considering his stature in the game and his aforementioned success at Flamengo.

Granted, he has already had two failed spells in Europe – he scored just one goal apiece during short stints at Inter Milan and Benfica – but he has since matured as a player and could be ready for a new challenge.

It is vital that West Ham sign someone to ease the burden on Michail Antonio between now and January, ensuring genuine top-four and Europa League challenges are mounted.

In other news, some West Ham fans are excited about another transfer claim. Read more here.

Imrul Kayes provided the anchor and Mohammad Ashraful the impetus, as Bangladesh warmed up for their opening World Twenty20 encounter with the champions Pakistan by easing to a comfortable 36-run victory over Barbados at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown

Cricinfo staff27-Apr-2010Bangladesh 166 for 5 (Kayes 57) beat Barbados 130 for 3 (Hinds 50*) by 36 runs
ScorecardBarbados had wickets in hand but couldn’t mount the target•Getty ImagesImrul Kayes provided the anchor and Mohammad Ashraful the impetus, as Bangladesh warmed up for Saturday’s World Twenty20 encounter with the champions Pakistan by easing to a comfortable 36-run victory over Barbados at the Kensington Oval in Bridgetown.With Tamim Iqbal missing due to a hand injury, Ashraful was promoted to open alongside Kayes, having missed the recent visit of England due to a loss of form. He responded with a pugnacious 35 from 12 deliveries, as Bangladesh rushed along to 166 for 5 in their 20 overs, after being asked to bat first.Ashraful was the first to fall in the ninth over, with the score on 64, when he was caught by Alcindo Holder off Carlos Brathwaite, but Kayes pushed along to a measured 57 from 59 balls, with Aftab Ahmed (26 from 20) providing powerful support in a second-wicket stand of 53 in 34 deliveries.In reply, Barbados lost their first wicket after four balls, which Rashidi Boucher edged to Ashraful at slip, to give Mashrafe Mortaza – another man who played little part in the England series – a wicket. From that point on, Barbados never seriously threatened to chase down their target, although Bangladesh’s bowlers found breakthroughs hard to come by. The captain, Hinds, produced a 48-ball half-century, before Jonathan Carter’s 30-ball 45 not out enlivened the closing overs. But the result was never in doubt.

Dele Alli’s time at Tottenham Hotspur could soon be coming to an end after the club were linked with a move for a new attacking midfielder…

What’s the word?

According to Italian newspaper La Gazzetta dello Sport (via Football Italia), Spurs will battle their north London rivals Arsenal to sign the Juventus outcast during the January transfer window.

It was the Lilywhites’ sporting director Fabio Paratici who signed him for the Serie A giants, so they could well be leading the race to seal his signature, in which Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich are also keen.

The Bianconeri appear to be willing to sell the 20-cap Sweden international for a minimum of €35m (£30m) to €40m (£34m) next month.

Bye-bye Alli?

The 21-year-old dynamo, who is capable of playing anywhere along the frontline, has dropped down the pecking order at the Allianz Stadium under Massimiliano Allegri this season.

Just four of his 21 appearances this term have been starts, whilst he has provided one goal and four assists from just 724 minutes of action, per Transfermarkt.

Last season, he enjoyed a lot of success as he delivered 14 direct goal contributions across 47 matches. What made that even more impressive was the fact that he did so whilst playing in at least seven different roles. A very versatile talent, indeed.

If that isn’t enough to suggest that he’s a perfect fit for Antonio Conte and his system, then perhaps praise from others in and around the game is.

“Kulusevski is an explosive player who likes to challenge his direct opponent,” once claimed ex-Sweden striker Marcus Allback to The Sun. “He likes to dribble with the ball, play the short passes and he is very good on the through balls. He’s quick and would cause a lot of trouble for most of the teams he plays.”

Whilst experienced Italian coach Pierpaolo Bisoli believes there are shades of Mohamed Salah about him “He has incredible physical strength. He reminds me of a young Salah for the way he shakes off opponents in the first ten metres,” he said.

On the above evidence, the fact that he is versatile and hugely dynamic, Kulusevski could well be a better fit for Conte at Spurs than Alli, whose best position is still undetermined.

Furthermore, there have been reports suggesting that Tottenham could finally be open to selling the 25-year-old amid his long-term struggles on the pitch.

Once dubbed a “freak of a talent” by former Lilywhites star Darren Anderton, Alli has failed to hit the heights of his past glory, managing only one goal and one assist this season.

Therefore, the £27m-rated dynamo could offer Conte and co a lot more than the Englishman, so if they are able to secure a move for him in January, then the club absolutely must do all they can to pull it over the line.

Spurs’ new boss could finally bin Alli with a move for the exciting Swedish sensation.

AND in other news, “Serious chance”: Romano drops teasing Spurs transfer update that’ll have fans buzzing…

England captain Andrew Strauss has warned against the danger of complacency with England progressing successfully through the opening stages of their Ashes tour

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Nov-2010England captain Andrew Strauss has warned against the danger of complacency with England progressing successfully through the opening stages of their Ashes tour. England started their trip with a six-wicket win against Western Australia, and had the better of a drawn match against South Australia that ended on Saturday.”The last thing we can do is get complacent and pat ourselves on the back, because we are ramping up our preparations,” said Strauss. “The preparation has gone well so far. We’ve got one more game to up it a level before the Test match.”Strauss scored hundreds in both of England’s warm-up games so far, his unbeaten 120 guiding England’s second-innings chase at Perth. He shared in a 181-run opening stand in England’s second innings against South Australia at the Adelaide Oval, with his partner Alastair Cook making 111 not out. Cook began the tour in unconvincing fashion with two single-figure scores against Western Australia, but the manner in which he bounced back to compile his hundred impressed Strauss.”Everyone wants to get runs early in the tour, to settle down and get used to the conditions,” said Strauss. “He batted exceptionally well. It wasn’t just the fact he got runs, it was the way he did it. His foot movement was very good and his timing was crisp. He’ll be feeling pretty good about himself, and that’s good for the team.”Despite two impressive showings in the warm-ups, Strauss suggested that there were still certain areas – such as first-innings totals – that could be improved upon. “I think our batting could have gone better actually, certainly the first innings in both games. In Australia, you set up the match by how you bat in the first innings. We’ll be looking for big first-innings scores, and we haven’t done that quite as much as we should have done.”England slipped to 4 for 95 on the first day of their match against South Australia before they were steadied by a 131-run partnership between Paul Collingwood and Ian Bell, and Strauss lauded both their performance and that of the bowling attack. “We didn’t have it all our own way, losing four wickets quite early on the first morning – which wasn’t ideal,” he said. “But from that point onwards, we reacted very well. Ian Bell and Paul Collingwood played exceptionally well in the first innings.”Our bowlers did a really top-quality job to bowl them out for 220 on a very flat wicket – and obviously we followed up with some good, positive cricket in the second half of the game.”Each member of England’s four-man frontline bowling attack has contributed at some point during their preparatory matches, but certain players may well be rested for next week’s match against Australia A in Tasmania in order to travel to Brisbane and acclimatise to the humid conditions there before the first Test. Strauss insisted, however, that such plans were yet to be finalised.”The situation at the moment is that everyone is flying down to Hobart. Then we’ve got to decide what is the best preparation for those seam bowlers for Brisbane. We’ll talk to them individually and then decide what the best bowling attack for that Australia A game is. There is definitely that option to send them up there to get acclimatised to the humidity – you can see the merits in that – but we haven’t decided one way or another at this stage.”Australia’s preparations for the first Test have been rather more troublesome than England’s, as they crashed to a one-day series defeat against Sri Lanka and still face questions over the form and fitness of certain players. Strauss suggested that the discord in the hosts’ camp could help England.”We were quite clear about the majority of our Test XI before we got on the plane. But everyone likes stability and security, knowing where they stand. If that’s not the case for Australia, then that could be a good thing for us.”

In the end, only two players, Sahara India Pariwar and Bharti Airtel, submitted bids for the right to sponsor the Indian team.

Nagraj Gollapudi and Tariq Engineer29-May-2010In the end, only two players, Sahara Group and Bharti Airtel, submitted bids for the right to sponsor the Indian team. Both Sahara, the existing sponsors, and Airtel bought the tender document at the last possible minute before the submission deadline, and Cricinfo has learnt both companies have submitted the mandatory Rs 50 crore (US$10.7 million) deposit required by the BCCI.The Indian board issued the tender on Monday inviting companies to bid for the rights, whose tenure is three-and-a-half years beginning July 1, 2010. Other companies in the fray included the ADA Group (ADAG), consumer electronics major Videocon, Delhi-based Monnet-Ispat, sports broadcaster Nimbus, which owns the rights to matches played in India, and advertising firm Percept.A source close to Nimbus said the broadcaster was approached by ADAG on Saturday morning, as its top brass was reluctant to commit as much as Rs 400 crore (US$ 85.6m) on its own. Nimbus, meanwhile, was trying to put together a consortium to bid for the rights, but was unable to pull it off due to the short time-span – less than a week – between the date the tender was released and the date the bids were submitted. “They released the tender on Monday and all the bids need to go in by Saturday, which is just about four working days by the time the tender was in hand. That is not very easy to work out when you are trying to get people to commit to Rs 400 crore.”It was reported widely that the BCCI was against consortiums bidding for the rights, but one of the interested players, who was among the first to pick the document, said that the board never had any issues there. “They had sent a clarification stating they did not want any marketing agencies to be part [of the consortium].”The BCCI has set a base price of Rs 2.5 crore per match for a three-and-a-half year period, during which India will be playing between 144 and 167 matches, depending on how far the team progresses in the ICC tournaments.The current price represents a 16% discount from the tender the board issued late last year, which had a base price of Rs 3 crore per match, and failed to attract a single bid. As a stop gap measure, the Sahara Group agreed to extend its sponsorship of the Indian team for a further six months, a period that ends on June 30.The lack of interest in the tender six months ago and the subsequent lowering of the base price represents “the impact of the IPL,” according to Hiren Pandit, Managing Partner-Entertainment, Sports and Partnerships at Group M, a prominent media buying agency. Pandit believes the IPL gives firms an alternative avenue to get involved with cricket, thereby reducing the exclusiveness of the Indian team.After winning the bid for the Pune IPL franchise, Sahara chairman Subrata Roy had said the company would re-evaluate its sponsorship of the Indian team. Subsequently, when contacted by Cricinfo, the company declined to comment to on whether it would be bidding this time around. The Sahara Group had paid roughly Rs 400 crore in 2005 for the right to sponsor the Indian team for four years.At least one prospective bidder, who bought the bid document, thought the current base price was still too high. “Anyone who bags the rights will have to spend on an average 125 crore annually only on this. That is a huge amount of money.”Shailendra Singh, joint managing director, Percept Limited, which had reportedly purchased the bid document for a client, says the Indian team is still the best cricket brand around. “From a value perspective, the sport of cricket stands unparalleled as a property for sponsors today,” he said. “For any fan, especially in India, the national team is the ultimate. People follow IPL because you have the cricketers from the Indian team playing, they are the main attraction. Hence this in no way reduces the importance or following of Team India. Team India will be one of the best cricket properties always.”The BCCI will announce the winning bid after holding its marketing committee meeting in Mumbai on Monday.

As with India, Bangladesh’s collapse started in the 15th over

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga18-Jan-2010Stumps
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
In his 266th Test innings – a world record – Sachin Tendulkar registered his 44th hundred•Associated PressBangladesh’s collapse, like India’s, started in the 15th over. India lost three wickets for six runs, Bangladesh lost three for five. India had 79 runs on the board before their collapse, Bangladesh 59. India continued collapsing, bad light granted Bangladesh stay orders. In fact the murky conditions allowed only 24.5 overs of play in the whole day, which means 90.1 overs have been lost on the first two days.After Sachin Tendulkar reached his 44th Test century, scoring 29 of India’s 30 runs on the second day, Tamim Iqbal and Imrul Kayes provided Bangladesh a solid and quick start, reaching 38 in eight overs. The coming together of Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma reduced scoring opportunities, the batsmen started playing and missing, surviving lbw shouts, and two runs in three overs resulted in Kayes slashing outside off, a shot that told the bowlers they were not far off a wicket.One more close lbw shout against Kayes later, Zaheer got one full and straight enough, and caught him on the crease. Shahriar Nafees, coming back from the ICL, top-edged a pull second ball, and then found Ishant to be too good for him. The ball landed on middle, back of a length, and then nipped away. Nafees had to play at it, and the movement squared him up, taking a healthy edge. In the next over, Zaheer, by now frustrated at missing the edge repeatedly, got one to nip in, squeeze under Tamim’s bat, and take the off stump.In 11 balls, Bangladesh had gone from hoping to dominate India to hoping for a Tendulkar-like stay to carry their fledgling innings. Tendulkar it was who added some respectability to India’s total, scoring 105 runs out of the 164 scored since he came to the crease. Resuming on 76 on the second morning, he manoeuvred the strike well and scored his 89th international century. Shakib Al Hasan and Shahadat Hossain reached five-fors – for Shakib, a sixth five-wicket haul in 15 Tests.Bangladesh came in with the mindset of attacking Nos 10 and 11, and hoping that Tendulkar wouldn’t cause irreversible damage in the meantime. In the first four overs, Tendulkar let Ishant play just six balls, only one of which troubled him. And during those four overs, with the field coming up for the last two balls, Tendulkar hit 2, 4, 1, 4, and 6 to get into the 90s. Shahadat then moved round the stumps and the change of angle proved to be too much for Ishant to handle, who edged a delivery going across.Sreesanth got a single first ball, and Tendulkar reached his century off the last two balls of that Shahadat over – Shakib was seen applauding Tendulkar’s effort. At the other end, Sreesanth didn’t look overly comfortable against Shakib who got alarming turn, but somehow saw off one over. Shahadat did his bit by bowling a wide yorker and keeping Tendulkar at his end. In the next over, Shakib got a leading edge that ended India’s innings.

England face an anxious wait to see if Stuart Broad and Graham Onions will be fit for the Test series against Bangladesh although were boosted when scans showed no major back problems in the two pacemen

Cricinfo staff05-Mar-2010England face an anxious wait to see if Stuart Broad and Graham Onions will be fit for the Test series against Bangladesh although were boosted when scans showed no major back problems in the two pacemen. They are hopeful the pair will be available for the first Test against Bangladesh on March 12 although neither will play the warm-up match starting on Sunday.England’s pace attack has been hit by a spate of injuries with Ryan Sidebottom ruled out of the Test series after aggravating a thigh problem during the first ODI, while Broad picked up his back problem during the second match and Onions has been struggling since arriving for the Tests.”Both players have back spasms as a result of bowling. MRI scans have ruled out any new acute injuries,” said an ECB statement. “Neither will be available for the warm-up game. Both will continue to undergo a programme of rehabilitation with a view to being available for the first Test.”Although the fears of both being sent home have receded for now it is hardly the perfect preparation for a Test series, especially with England already without James Anderson for this tour.”It’s obviously not ideal,” said Alastair Cook. “There is good news today with the scan showing no major structural damage, but we all know that backs with bowlers are very important, so we’ve got to work hard on those guys and keep our fingers crossed.”We can only let the back spasms settle, and hopefully they can be fit. Ideally they’d need some overs under their belt in the three-day game, but we can’t have that so we have to wait and see and play it by ear.”Tim Bresnan, who claimed a career-best 4 for 28 in the final ODI, will remain on the tour as a replacement for Sidebottom and was England’s stand-out quick during the one-day series.”Bres was fantastic,” said Cook. “All his overs were in the tough Powerplays, he stood up to be counted, as he has done in the last three games, and he thoroughly deserves his call-up to the Test team. He knows where it’s going, he’s very confident, talking to him in the Powerplays, he’s setting the fields and bowling to those fields which takes a huge lot of skill. He’s putting his name forward.”Meanwhile, Steven Finn, the uncapped Middlesex quick, has been called up as cover for Broad and Onions. Ajmal Shahzad and Liam Plunkett are the other squad pacemen and both played the one-dayer in Chittagong with Shahzad taking a wicket with his third ball.

The morning after England’s 2005 Ashes victory, Andrew Flintoff could barely stand. Fast-forward four years and it was a much more sober and mature Flintoff who reflected on his second series triumph over Australia

Andrew McGlashan24-Aug-2009The morning after England’s 2005 Ashes victory, Andrew Flintoff could barely stand, having enjoyed an all-night vigil at the bar which continued well into the following day. Fast-forward four years and it was a much more sober and mature Flintoff who reflected on his second series triumph over Australia and prepared himself for another long period of rehabilitation.With England securing the Ashes in four days, Flintoff’s knee operation has been brought forward to Monday evening and by the time he left his press conference he was already nil-by-mouth. There’ll be no more champagne or beer, at least until the general anaesthetic has worn off. Four years ago he wouldn’t have needed any drugs to get through major surgery.Flintoff’s morning-after feeling this time was more to do with the realisation that he faces another painful round of recuperation from his latest surgery. When news of his operation was first reported last week a nine-month lay-off was one figure bandied around, but the man himself will wait and see how the procedure goes and hasn’t ruled out a return for the one-day series in Bangladesh next February.”The fortunate thing about winning a day early is that they have brought my op forward,” he said. “I can get that done tonight – then it’s all about getting fit. The harsh reality is now that I need to get my knee sorted out. It’s made me more determined to get back to playing fit. Last week was a hard one for me, lots of talks with the surgeon but the incentive is wearing the three lions and I desperately want to wear them again, albeit in one-day matches and Twenty20s.”The surgeon has a good idea of what he’s going to find. I think it’d be wrong for me to speculate on that. Then, like I say, the rehab… we’ll see when I wake up after the anaesthetic and see where I’m at with it.”Realistically I think before Christmas I’m going to struggle. Obviously I’ve retired from Test cricket but there’s a tour to Bangladesh which I desperately want to be involved in. So realistically I think that could be my first cricket after this Test. I want to be the best one-day cricketer in the world and I can set my sights on that.”While Flintoff repeated his desire to be the best limited-overs player on the planet he wants the Test team that he leaves behind to learn from the mistakes of 2005 and build on their success to become the top side in the world. That was Michael Vaughan’s aim, but the victory and the subsequent lengthy celebration wasn’t used in the right way and the team went backwards over the next four years.”What I think we need to do is, if there’s any lesson to learn from 2005 now, it’s to go for domination, to try to get number one in the world,” Flintoff said. “We’ve got the talent, we’ve got the side to do it. It’s just a case of believing it and putting it into practice. One comforting thing is, having seen yesterday and the past five Test matches, is that I’ll disappear and the England side will be in good hands”The likes of [Jonathan] Trott coming in and everybody’s forgetting about KP. Our best player has not played the bulk of this Test series. So the future of the side is in good hands. There’s no reason why we can’t be the best in the world. We’re a very talented team – but we can’t get carried away.”What makes this victory even more remarkable was that at the beginning of the year the team was in turmoil with the fall-out between Kevin Pietersen and Peter Moores which led to both losing their jobs. That was followed by the 51 all-out demise at Sabina Park and at that time no-one would have believed this team would be even be able to challenge for the Ashes. For that stunning turnaround, there can be no praise high enough for Andrew Strauss, the man who managed to glue a fractured side together and make them play for each other again, as they did in 2005.Strauss formed the type of team spirit that was absent in 2006-07 when the Ashes we handed back with the 5-0 whitewash down under, when Flintoff was preferred as captain and he struggled to combine the roles of leading player and leading man. He has admitted it was a role too much for and that Strauss was the right man all along.”I think in a roundabout way we got to the right man for the job,” he said. “There was lot of speculation [about who would be captain] between me and him for the last Ashes series in 2006-07. I said before, I probably took one for the team there. We got beat but it’s enabled Straussy through different circumstances to take over.”Straussy leads by example, not just with his batting but with the way he conducts himself. He’s a popular lad. I’m sure in four or five years’ time when someone else is sat in this chair being asked what Andrew Strauss was like as a captain… he was a belter.”

For the first of the warm-up games on this tour England take on an Otago side bolstered by the addition of the two Claire Taylors and Arran Thompson

Claire Taylor's Winter Diary25-Dec-2009For the first of the warm-up games on this tour England take on an Otago side bolstered by the addition of the two Claire Taylors and Arran Thompson. England bat first and make 193 for nine on a grassy wicket.I’m behind the stumps for only the third time this year and keep tidily, picking up a stumping. The Otago Sparks batted well with contributions from the England players and Rachel Pullar (a New Zealand player who has withdrawn from the current squad) to complete a three-wicket win with five overs to spare.Sunday saw the second of the warm-up matches. England elected to field first this time and Rachel Pullar top scored for the Sparks with 100 not out to leave England with 200 runs required for the win. Rain stopped play late in the afternoon with England at the asking rate with three wickets down. It would have been a good chase for England to win and would have filled the batsmen with confidence going into the World Series Tournament at Lincoln.All of the matches on this tour will be filmed and the video footage analysed to help us make improvements to our game. We’ll track against key performance indicators such as quick singles, edges, appeals, play and misses and so on. Bowlers and batsmen alike will be able to view matchday footage of technique to check shot selection and execution or ball shape and the batsmen’s reaction. Already I’ve noticed differences in bat pick up that I’ll be able to work on in training.The next day we travelled back up to Christchurch and started our training at Lincoln University. There were a lot of memories from the World Cup for most of the players in the squad, not a very happy time for the England girls and hopefully we’ll be able to overcome that and play some more positive cricket. That evening was spent helping Laura Harper celebrate her 19th birthday.Our first match at Lincoln was another warm-up game against New Zealand A, who had just tied a match against their senior team. We scored 199 for six on a difficult track with the ball staying very low (three LBWs for the first three wickets). NZ A won the match with only two balls to spare and no wickets. A very tense competitive match which we should have sown up when they needed 21 from 18 deliveries with two wickets in hand.The opening match of the tournament saw Australia reasserting their dominance of the women’s game with a 60-run victory over New Zealand, Karen Rolton scoring a quickfire 80 from 60 balls. Our first game was against India in a rain affected 45 over match. As the scorecards show we didn’t bat well and collapsed from 49 for one to 86 all out.India made the runs for the loss of only four wickets and left us very down about our game.At training the next day we worked on skills for manipulating the ball for singles, a game against Australia bringing out intense concentration. The game itself was good for us. Another step on the ladder to getting victories against these teams. We made 158 from our 50 overs, I made 35 from 50 deliveries before a soft dismissal to gully. Australia were under pressure early on and we feel that we kept Rolton in check, allowing mostly singles in the second phase of the game.They won the game in the 39th over to claim the bonus point with seven wickets in hand after a good partnership between Rolton and Gosko.A jog and stretching for warm down followed by an ice bath and we’re getting ready for the next day’s play against the Kiwis. Once again our batting let us down and we’re defending 140 on a lightening quick outfield. The Kiwis get off to a quick start with Rolls and Lynch scoring at six an over.We meet up at the drinks break determined to make a change and in a fantastic 15-over spell take five wickets for 26 runs. It wasn’t quite enough though, as McGlashan and Mason steered the Kiwis home in the 39th over.Today we’ve been catching up with washing and preparing for a media event that was to see most of the team in the Avon river in Christchurch. Four team members were selected to represent England in the first World Series Inner Tube race with entries from India, New Zealand and Australia to take on.The race started amicably enough with Laura Newton leading the way for England. The rules stated that “mild” interference was allowed and that only deliberate capsizing of an opposition tube would lead to disqualification. Suffice to say that the race turned into an interference competition with those out of the water hampering the other teams as best they could. India’s novel approach involved getting out of the water near the beginning and running the tube and paddle down stream.The Kiwis on the riverside were all dressed in smart casuals for a team meal out so weren’t able to join in the interference employed by the Australians and English supporters. Tubes and paddles were stolen and competitors pushed back up the river whilst trying to avoid the shower of water bombs and eggs from the riverside.England were named inaugural winners since we were in the lead before all this really started. So we now have a beautiful trophy topped with a rubber duck (a nod to the official annual rubber duck race down the Avon) to add to the ECB’s trophy cabinet. Here’s hoping that we can get some wins on the board and add a cricketing trophy as well.