Atapattu backs Sri Lanka's fighting spirit

Marvan Atapattu, Sri Lanka's interim coach, has backed his team to come out firing in the second one-day international against England as they attempt to level the series.

They lost by 81 runs in a truncated match at The Oval and the forecast suggests weather may have a say on Sunday as well, but regardless of the duration of the contest Atapattu believes the early setback could bring out the best in Sri Lanka.

"History will tell you that if these guys are pushed to the wall they come out with all big guns blazing." Atapattu said. "Even in that World T20 game against New Zealand where we had to win, the way that we played showed the character of the team. They play with a lot of pride each one comes with a big reputation that helps the team spirit. We derive the results that we want to have. Those kinds of things drive the team forward."

The loss at The Oval was Sri Lanka's first ODI defeat for the year after a run of nine consecutive wins. Angelo Mathews pulled no punches after the match, assessing it as a poor performance throughout, and Atapattu sounded a similar note.

"Our execution on the field was nowhere close to our best. We are a good team that finishes innings which is one of our strengths. It was one of those days when our bowling didn't come right we must make sure it does not happen again," he said. "We have been doing so well in the two shorter formats been brilliant on the field and batted well which have been our strong points, but on Thursday it was a different scenario."

The two areas where Sri Lanka lost significantly were during the Chris Jordan blitz when he blasted 38 runs off 13 balls and when they lost Tillakaratne Dilshan soon after the final break for rain which reduced the chase to 32 overs.

"They batted extremely well and for Jordan to get 38 off 13 balls was remarkable. He got the measure of the two bowlers [Malinga and Kulasekara]," Atapattu said. "We shouldn't forget that although it was a 50-over game it ended up as a 32-over affair. In shorter games this could happen. If somebody has a good day the game could shift very soon within a few minutes. The momentum shifted towards England.

"Losing Dilshan at a crucial juncture straight after the break for rain was the other setback. Dilshan and Mahela were going really well at the time when rain disrupted play. Then straight after the break Dilshan got out caught at third man. If he had gone a bit longer, another eight to ten overs, we would have had a good platform to launch. We missed that."

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Hales called up with Cook in doubt

Alex Hales, the Nottinghamshire batsman, has been added to the England squad for the second ODI against Sri Lanka at Chester-le-Street as cover for captain Alastair Cook.

Hales, who played in Tuesday's T20 at the Oval, was left out of the initial ODI squad but could now make an appearance if Cook is not deemed fit to play. He is suffering with tightness in his right groin.

There had been calls for Hales to be selected in the original ODI squad to provide a greater tempo at the top of the order but England chose to return to Cook and Ian Bell as their opening pair. Last week Hales, who went out on loan to Worcestershire earlier this season to try and get some first-team Championship cricket, spoke about the frustration of being pigeon-holed as a T20 player.

Hales has offered England with much-needed power in T20 cricket and he made a century in a memorable win over Sri Lanka in the recent World T20; he also top-scored for England in their T20 defeat to Sri Lanka last Tuesday. But so far, Hales has yet to be utilised in 50-over cricket.

Michael Carberry is also in the squad, presumably as a spare opener, but Hales' call-up suggests Carberry will not be first reserve should England need another partner for Bell.

Should Cook not be fit, Eoin Morgan - who took charge of the T20 side in the absence of Stuart Broad - will lead England at Chester-le-Street.

If Hales is not required on Sunday morning he may be released back to Nottinghamshire who have a Championship match starting against Durham.

England also announced that if Tim Bresnan, who did not play the T20 or first ODI, is not selected in the side he will be made available for Yorkshire's Roses match against Lancashire at Headingley.

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Vincent has 'no deal whatsoever' with ICC - lawyer

Lou Vincent's lawyer, Chris Morris, has said Vincent had not cut any deal "whatsoever" with the ICC in return for revealing information on alleged corruption in cricket. The talk of Vincent cutting a deal with regards to being spared criminal sanctions for cooperating was untrue, Morris said, especially as the ICC does not have jurisdiction over criminal procedure.

"Wrong, he has done no deal whatsoever," Morris told Radio Sport. "The ICC cannot give that guarantee in any event, because they are different from the people who would put him in prison, which is the Met [metropolitan] police. You can never get a deal from a sporting body that a law enforcement body isn't going to come and lock somebody up."

Vincent could face a jail sentence for admitting to wrongdoing, he admitted. "Correct [Vincent could go to jail]. No guarantees whatsoever. There has been no deal."

When asked why despite the threat of criminal prosecution Vincent made the revelations he did, Morris said he just wanted to shed the baggage. "He had got to that point in his life where he just wanted to start telling the truth about what had been happening," Morris said.

A former New Zealand batsman and wicketkeeper, Vincent was charged with 14 offences relating to two matches from 2011 - a T20 between Sussex and Lancashire and a 40-over game between Sussex and Kent - on May 22, after reportedly having given information to the ICC's anti-corruption unit on attempted fixing in several competitions around the world. The following day Vincent said he expected more corruption charges to be laid against him in the near future, even while insisting he had not made a plea-bargain with the ICC. He is expected to be charged with fixing offences, while playing for Auckland Aces, in the Champions League T20.

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'I have never seen this kind of innings' - Gambhir

Yusuf Pathan can be a brutal hitter capable of changing matches in a matter of minutes, as he famously showed during his two ODI centuries and a 37-ball 100 for Rajasthan Royals in 2010. Memories of those innings were fading, though, after three lean seasons in the IPL, and an international career that stalled in 2012.

Those memories came flooding back when he ripped Sunrisers Hyderabad apart at Eden Gardens with the fastest half-century in the IPL. Shane Warne, Yusuf's captain in 2010, had famously and hyperbolically said that the 37-ball 100 was the "best innings I have ever seen". Yusuf's current captain, Gautam Gambhir, didn't go that far, but was awestruck by the 22-ball 72 that grabbed a top-two place for Kolkata Knight Riders.

"I have never seen this kind of innings in my career and I don't think I am going to see many like this in future as well," Gambhir said. "This is unbelievable hitting, I think I could have only dreamt of it, but actually I have seen this in reality, so it still hasn't sunk in."

When Yusuf was asked about the lack of runs this season, he joked, "No point hitting form early also." When he walked in, Knight Riders needed 106 off 47 to pip Chennai Super Kings to the second spot. Yusuf's lethal hitting meant they got there with six balls to spare.

Asked to compare this innings with that whirlwind century in 2010, he rated the 73 higher. "That was also a very good knock for me, but I couldn't win the match for the team, I got run-out. But here we won the match and especially the runs we needed to make to reach the top two, we had to score in 15 overs, I achieved that, I'm feeling good, and I think this is my best innings compared to that one."

Perhaps the highlight of the innings was the Dale Steyn over in which Yusuf clobbered 26 runs. When asked to explain his thinking when he was in the sort of form he was in today, he said: "I try hard to stay calm, but I also tell myself that if the ball is again in my area, then I will again hit it. I try not to let the bowler get on top of me, it's okay if I get out but what the team's requirement is, I play for that, whatever people say."

Both Yusuf and Robin Uthappa, Knight Riders' standout batsman this season, talked about the vociferous support they received from the Eden Gardens crowd. Yusuf's onslaught means they will have that vocal backing of their home crowd on Tuesday as well, when they take on Kings XI Punjab to fight for a place in the final.

Gambhir said the home game and the top-two spot was just reward for their performance in the league phase, which they finished with seven consecutive victories. "This was always the thought that we wanted to finish in first two, because the kind of cricket we have played in the last seven games, we deserve to be there in the top two," Gambhir said. "It would have been really unfair for us if we had gone to No. 3 or No. 4. We still get two cracks and hopefully we can get to the final."

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Smith's spin an unlikely success

Hampshire 177 for 5 (Vince 52) beat Sussex 159 for 5 (Joyce 56) by 18 runs
Scorecard

After their blip against Glamorgan last week Hampshire were back to their formidable best at Hove. Finalists for the last four years and winners in 2010 and 2012 they again look the side to beat after a comfortable 18 run victory over Sussex.

Despite the absence of Chris Jordan, Matt Prior and Chris Nash Sussex made a decent fist of chasing 178. At halfway they were slight favourites with Ed Joyce and Rory Hamilton-Brown dovetailing effectively.

Even in a format that you might necessarily think would suit a stylist like Joyce, the Sussex captain remains a class act. The on-drive down the slope for four off Kyle Abbott was a thing of beauty and all the time he was there to anchor their response, Sussex had a chance of overhauling an asking rate in excess of nine an over.

But Hamilton-Brown, having got the measure of a slow pitch with 34 off 22 balls, was bowled making room and then Ben Brown had a horrible mow across the line having just punched two sumptuous boundaries through midwicket. The successful bowler on both occasions was Will Smith who was seldom utilised by his former club Durham in this format, certainly with the ball. But his skiddy off-breaks proved ideally suited to the surface and he finished with 2 for 21.

Joyce went to his half-century and tried to force the pace at the end but Abbott showed his international experience with a potent blend of accurate yorkers and slower balls as the boundaries dried up and Hampshire closed the game out with the certainty of a side who knew they had Sussex where they want them.

With Abbott's occasionally searing pace, the accuracy of left-arm spinner Danny Briggs and an athletic fielding unit Hampshire have all the bases covered. They look an evolving side too with 17-year-old Brad Taylor taking a decent catch on debut while that old stager Owais Shah anchored the second half of their innings with the assurity of someone with 199 games in this format behind him.

They also have the necessary firepower to take advantage of the Powerplay. James Vince and skipper Jimmy Adams formed a new opening partnership and although Adams fell in the fourth over Vince hit the ball with a mixture of impeccable timing and brutal power. His 52 from 31 balls contained 44 in boundaries, including two sixes which sailed over mid-wicket and out of the ground.

Hampshire scored 65 at the end of the Powerplay and although the Sussex attack did well to drag things back they suffered at the end when Sean Ervine cut loose with 38 off 23 balls. Credit then, amidst the big hitting, to leg spinner Will Beer who was prepared to give the ball some air while Yasir Arafat showed all his nous with two wickets in his final over.

A target of 178 would have tested Sussex even if they had been able to call on their big hitters. Luke Wright threatened to provide the start they needed until he was superbly caught over his shoulder by the diving Adams. At halfway the scores were level but Sussex could have no complaints. They played better than in both of last weekend's two victories but were beaten by the better side, a fate one suspects awaiting a few more of Hampshire's opponents over the next few weeks.

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Bell-Drummond leads Kent pyrotechnics

Kent 164 for 5 (Bell-Drummond 59, Stevens 47, Key 46) beat Somerset 122 for 5 (Hildreth 58*, Bollinger 3-36) by 42 runs
Scorecard

Kent opened their NatWest T20 Blast campaign with a 42-run victory over Somerset in a rain-affected South Group match at the County Ground.

The game was reduced to 13 overs a side and delayed until 7pm, but the poor weather failed to dampen Kent's spirits as they sent the hosts crashing to a second defeat in the competition.

The win was orchestrated by Kent's top order, with opener Daniel Bell-Drummond the star of the show as he smashed a T20 career-best 59 off 30 balls, including eight fours and two sixes, to set up a score of 164 for 5.

Bell-Drummond's fellow opener Rob Key also flailed the Somerset attack by posting a quickfire 46 off 22 deliveries in an opening stand of 85. Darren Stevens ensured the flow of runs continued, needing just 20 balls to smash a 47 that was headlined by two sixes.

The next two wickets fell cheaply but the damage had already been done, with Somerset lacking the firepower to mount a serious challenge to the target set.

When captain Marcus Trescothick fell cheaply for 3, the writing appeared to be on the wall. Trescothick's fellow opener Craig Kieswetter struck 40 to give Somerset hope, but they were running out of overs to catch their opponents.

James Hildreth finished unbeaten on 58 from 29 balls in a score consisting of seven fours and one six, but his fine effort failed to prevent Kent from romping home.

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Croft and Brown ignite Lancashire

Lancashire 169 for 3 (Croft 76*, Brown 67) beat Derbyshire 149 for 5 (Moore 40, Ali 3-27) by 20 runs
Scorecard

The last time Glen Chapple's Lancashire side won a T20 match at the County Ground was in 2009. They had VVS Laxman and Faf du Plessis in their line-up and were carried to victory by a blistering career-best 93 from a certain Andrew Flintoff. Tonight they had record fourth-wicket pair and half-centurions Steven Croft and Karl Brown to thank for ending a run of three losses and a tie here.

Going back a couple of weeks, you would have got pretty short odds on Flintoff playing in this clash with talk of his return to the game reaching a crescendo. A badly sprained ankle in fielding practice put paid to that idea, although the chances of him playing later in the competition are still just about alive. He could play 2nd XI cricket next week.

Lancashire also had Gareth Cross behind the stumps when they last won here and were approximately six months away from signing Stephen Moore from Worcestershire. Both men played for the opposition tonight and, although Moore hit 40 off 35 balls, the task of chasing down 170 was just too stiff. Limited-overs expert Kabir Ali finished with 3 for 27 from four overs to secure a 20-run victory.

Rain delayed the start by 45 minutes, reducing the match to 19 overs per side, and Derbyshire started well by removing Tom Smith, Alex Davies and visiting captain Paul Horton early on to reduce the score 38 for 3.

However, Brown and Croft, both shifted down the order to No. 3 and 5 respectively, produced some Flintoff-esque power hitting as they shared an unbroken 131 inside 14 overs, a Lancashire record for that wicket in this format. They plundered 77 in the last 36 balls of the innings and both brought up their fifties with a six.

While Brown's unbeaten 67 off 50 balls represented a career-best score, Croft's 76 off 52 was his best T20 score in a Lancashire shirt since 2010 and was a reminder of his qualities following a frustrating season and a quarter in all forms, which has included losing the responsibility of stand-in captain when Chapple does not play. That is now the job of official vice-captain Horton.

Horton employed seven bowlers in the first eight overs of Derbyshire's chase and it was a tactic that worked despite not signalling a flurry of early wickets. Moore struggled with his timing early on as Lancashire controlled things.

In truth, Derbyshire never really got going and when Moore and Marcus North, another former Lancashire player, both fell in the space of eight balls in the eleventh and 12th overs to leave the score at 88 for 3, it was realistically game over with the run rate escalating beyond two runs per ball.

Ali struck twice in the closing stages before Junaid Khan comfortably defended 26 off the last over to give their side the perfect pick-me-up ahead of Sunday's crucial Roses Championship match against Yorkshire.

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Willey blasts Northants to second win

Northamptonshire 179 for 8 (Willey 95) beat Leicestershire 176 for 4 (Cobb 70, Smith 56) by two wickets
Scorecard

David Willey's explosive 95 off just 45 balls lifted Northamptonshire to a two-wicket win over Leicestershire in their rain-reduced NatWest T20 Blast encounter at Wantage Road.

Willey is fast gaining a reputation as one of the hottest properties in the shortest format and his bombastic innings on Friday helped the defending champions edge to their second victory from two games in a match that was reduced to 18 overs per side due to rain.

Half-centuries from Josh Cobb and Greg Smith helped Leicestershire to 176 for 4 after they were invited to bat, but Willey laid the platform for the lower order to edge over the line with two balls to spare.

Willey, who was key to Northants' win in the final last year, has been unable to bowl this season because of an ongoing back injury, but as opening batsman he was nigh-on unstoppable against the Foxes.

Richard Levi got Northants' chase off to a strong start by taking 14 off Buck in the second over, although the bowler would have the last laugh when he bowled Levi for 17.

Levi's opening partner Willey thumped the first of his six sixes in the next over and appeared to be thoroughly enjoying his task when he took two maximums in three balls off Anthony Ireland.

He did enjoy a bit of luck on 44 when Scott Styris and substitute fielder Matt Boyce left it to each other to take a catch, with neither doing so. It proved a costly let-off as Willey kept motoring on, despite the dismissals of Kyle Coetzer, Rob Newton and Steven Crook, easily overtaking his previous highest T20 score of 60.

He appeared on course for a maiden T20 century but fell five runs short when he skied Ireland to Ned Eckersley.

Northants still required 30 off 24 balls, but their lower order saw them squeeze home, with Graeme White hammering Rob Taylor for four.

Leicestershire captain Cobb had appeared to put his side in a commanding position with an excellent 70 off 45 balls, while he was ably supported by Smith's 56 off 37 deliveries in a partnership of 113 for the second wicket. Styris took 19 runs off the final over in a fantastic cameo, but it proved to be in vain.

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ECB refer Carberry article to Press Complaints Commission

The ECB have referred The Guardian to the Press Complaints Commission following an interview with Michael Carberry in which he claimed he had been the victim of unfair treatment by England management.

While the ECB do not dispute the words spoken by Carberry in the article, published on March 31, were genuine, they were unhappy with the general tone of the piece and felt more should have been done to reflect their side of the story.

Specifically, they were unhappy with the suggestion that, while the other players in the Ashes tour party were allowed to fly their families to Australia for Christmas, "only Carberry's request that his mother be his invited guest was denied" and the insinuation that Carberry might have struggled for selection throughout his career "for some reason".

The ECB insist that the terms of the flights provided for the partners of touring players is clear and that Carberry was not the victim of inequitable treatment. They are also concerned that Carberry's comment that "throughout my England career, even as a schoolboy, I've always had that shorter rope for some reason," might be interpreted as a suggestion that he was the victim of racial discrimination.

The ECB had earlier threatened to take legal action after an article in the Nightwatchman magazine suggested that Carberry's struggle to gain England selection might have been due to racial discrimination. The magazine deleted the article from all on-line platforms and printed an apology and retraction in the next issue. They also made a donation to Chance to Shine.

It is understood the ECB made several attempts to persuade The Guardian to print a similar retraction, but the newspaper is standing by its story.

The Press Complaints Commission is an independent body which administers the system of self-regulation for the press.

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'Unanimous feeling' against KP - Downton

Paul Downton has claimed there was a "unanimous feeling" within the England camp that the time had come to move on from Kevin Pietersen and suggested the team who lost the Ashes had fallen "into a mindset thinking they were better than they were".

Downton, the new managing director of England cricket, told the BBC's Test Match Special that he talked to every member of the England management on the Ashes tour and quite a few senior players and "couldn't find one supporter" for Pietersen.

"All I know is I and others wanted people purely focused on playing for England," Downton said. "There was an enormous amount of frustration surrounding KP from everyone in the management team. I watched every ball of the Sydney Test and I had never seen anyone as disinterested or distracted on a cricket field.

"The accusation made was that he had too many different agendas and was not 100 per cent focused on playing for England. Who knows if that's right but that was the unanimous feeling. I couldn't find one supporter saying 'we want KP to stay in the side'.

"I'm not saying all that happened in Australia was down to KP. Dynamics disintegrate when you're under pressure. Maybe all the players were a bit distracted in terms of commercial opportunities. Test cricket is hard work and back-to-back Ashes series had an enormous effect on mental energy. We suffered from that point of view."

While Downton reiterated that there was no single incident that led him to conclude that the time had come to drop Pietersen, he accepted that, from a PR perspective, it would have been easier to dismiss Pietersen as a direct result of the "textgate" issue in 2012.

"The public would have understood it more," Downton said. "Andy Flower was trying to back Alastair Cook ahead of the tour to India and a peace deal was brokered. But a huge amount of trust was lost.

"He was brought back, which opened the opportunity up for rehabilitation. In the end that lasted 18 months and we've decided to make a split. The team has to grow and rebuild and can only do it without KP in the side.

"KP had a fantastic career but it was not incident free," Downton said. "There were issues. We managed KP fantastically. He played 10 years of Tests. But there was a strong feeling within the management that team won't grow until we make a decision and move on.

	"We played on wickets that were slow and our batsmen lost confidence and we became too tight. We defended rather than attacked and fell apart under immense pressure." Paul Downton

"We had to rebuild the side. That side, with KP in it, had just lost 5-0. We lost Strauss 18 months ago and never really replaced him. Graeme Swann retired during the tour and Jonathan Trott, who I saw yesterday, is recovering but is quite long way from getting back to playing cricket. So we made a decision on KP. We had to rebuild the side. And we had to decide who we were going to back. Were Cook and Bell going to be backbone, or were we going to back KP? It became a bit of a no-brainer.

Downton also admitted that he, and the ECB, could perhaps have handled the situation better in the days following the decision not to select him for the World T20 which sparked a backlash on social media.

"We told KP 'we won't pick you for the World T20'. From then on he was clear he wanted to come to a settlement to terminate central contract. His team pushed for that. We would have been quite happy to let the contract run out. It was a week before the IPL auction. KP wanted the freedom to play where he wanted to play and he won a big contract because of it.

"The lawyers took three days to argue to and fro and it did leave a vacuum. I'd been in the job a week and I didn't know how best to handle it. I was not aware of social media at the time. It was always going to be noisy. But the sooner people understand that we have cut our ties with KP and moved on and that we're investing in younger players coming in to rebuild the side, the better."

Downton also suggested that the England team that lost the Ashes 5-0 had developed a mindset that overestimated their ability.

"There was a group of players together for a long time," he said. "And, in the words of Graham Gooch, felt they had one more tour left. There was a huge focus to win in India and keep the Ashes, but they were starting to play slightly defensive cricket.

"They had a wake-up call in New Zealand, then struggled over here again in the Ashes and we slowly lost confidence. We played on wickets that were slow and our batsmen lost confidence and we became too tight. We defended rather than attacked and fell apart under immense pressure.

"It's very rare when you have such a settled group for so long and it's very different not to become stale. The preparation and planning was the same in 2013 as it had been in 2010-11 but we couldn't recreate the same sense of urgency. The tanks were empty.

"Maybe, as a collective, the team got into a mindset thinking they were better than they were. No-one was deliberately complacent but maybe success turned out to be a false cocoon around them."

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