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The defending champions have lost all four matches so far, and will hope the appointment can help turn their season around

Firdose Moonda19-Nov-2019Neil McKenzie, the former South African batsman and batting coach, has joined the Jozi Stars as a mentor and consultant for the remainder of the Mzansi Super League (MSL) season. The Stars, who are the defending champions after winning last year’s inaugural event, have lost all four of their matches so far.McKenzie, a stalwart in his playing days for the Johannesburg-based Lions, worked with the South African team during Russell Domingo’s tenure as head coach. He was not retained when Ottis Gibson took over in September 2017, with the job going to Dale Benkenstein, and McKenzie has most recently been in the Bangladesh camp, where he was part of their 2019 World Cup preparations.McKenzie is one of 10 former internationals involved in a management role at the MSL, at a time when South African cricket is desperate for their expertise and experience. That means all the MSL franchises have former national players involved. Ashwell Prince, Paul Adams and Hashim Amla (albeit in short-term capacity) are at the Cape Town Blitz, Mark Boucher is head coach of the Tshwane Spartans, Robin Peterson is Eric Simons’ assistant at the Nelson Mandela Bay Giants, and Gary Kirsten is the head coach of the Durban Heat. Paarl Rocks do not have a former international at the helm but are coached by Adrian Birrell, the former national assistant coach, who also worked under Domingo, and count Justin Ontong and JP Duminy among their backroom staff.While McKenzie’s appointment will allay fears that South Africa’s former greats are being sidelined, especially in the aftermath of Graeme Smith pulling out of the race to become the first director of cricket, it is also much-needed for the ailing Stars. Their batting has got worse as the tournament has progressed as they went from a promising 198 for 5 in a narrow 15-run defeat in the season-opener against the Blitz to being bowled out for 108 by the Giants last Saturday. Not only has their line-up has been overly reliant on Temba Bavuma and Reeza Hendricks, but their other senior batsmen, Chris Gayle and Rassie van der Dussen, have barely contributed and their game plan needs work.The Stars were forced to find a new coach after last season’s successful manager, Enoch Nkwe, was promoted to the role of South Africa’s interim team director, a new position created to replace the traditional coach’s role. Nkwe was assigned to take the team to India, where they drew a T20I series and lost the Tests 0-3, and even though it is not confirmed whether he will continue in the role, he was replaced at the Stars. Donovan Miller, who assisted Nkwe last season, has taken over but had a difficult start, and will hope McKenzie can help him turn things around.

Richard Johnson will take on Scott’s role for the remainder of the Championship campaign with Daniel Vettori already in position to be coach for T20 Blast

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Jul-2018Middlesex’s head coach, Richard Scott, has left his role with the county, who are mid-table in Division Two of the County Championship and failed to qualify for the knockouts in the Royal London Cup.Richard Johnson, the assistant coach, will take on Scott’s role for the remainder of the Championship campaign. Daniel Vettori is already in position to be coach for T20 Blast, which starts this week, although since winning the T20 title in 2008 they have underwhelmed in that format.Scott took the head coach position in 2009 and guided Middlesex to promotion in 2011 before they won the Championship on a thrilling final day of the 2016 season when Toby Roland-Jones (who has been ruled out for this season with a back injury) claimed a hat-trick.The following summer, however, they were relegated and their attempts for an immediate return to Division One have not been convincing this season with two wins in seven matches. In their most recent match against Kent they were bowled out for 56 and 124.”On behalf of Middlesex Cricket I would like to thank Richard for all that he has given the club as head coach during the past 10 years; he has been a loyal, hard-working, committed and high quality coach,” Angus Fraser, Middlesex’s managing director of cricket, said.”As with every coach in professional sport we have shared highs and lows but to play a leading role in a side winning the County Championship is a triumph very few coaches can claim. Under his guidance more than a dozen cricketers have gone on to gain international recognition.”A process to recruit a new head coach for 2019 will commence immediately.”

Nitish Rana has credited advice from Gautam Gambhir to tweak his batting technique for his form in the IPL this season

ESPNcricinfo staff26-Apr-2017Nitish Rana has credited advice from Gautam Gambhir to tweak his batting technique – shifting from a low stance to a more upright one and opening up his front shoulder – for his form in the IPL this season. Rana said he decided to change his technique after he discussed Gambhir’s suggestions with Mahela Jayawardene and Sachin Tendulkar in the Mumbai Indians camp. Gambhir, the Kolkata Knight Riders captain, is a senior team-mate of Rana’s at the Delhi Ranji Trophy team.”As my form dipped and I got out early in a couple of one-dayers, Gambhir spoke to me regarding my technique. After coming over here, I spoke to Sachin sir and Mahela sir regarding the same and both said that Gambhir was right and from the first day I started practicing that way,” Rana told the . “I have a low stance and there was a problem with me being side-on. They asked me to be upright and open up my shoulder a bit more to help me get a better look at the ball.”Rana, with 266 runs, is currently the fourth-highest run-getter in this IPL season and one of only two batsmen – Moises Henriques being the other – to score three fifties.Rana said he considers failure as part of the process leading to success.”Frankly speaking, I feel if a person doesn’t fail in life he won’t be able to learn anything,” he said. “I knew something this big was on the cards. I failed a lot, people commented as well, but I ignored it and believed in myself, trusted my game and worked hard. Today, I’m getting the rewards for what I’ve put in.”Rana also said he chose to focus harder after a poor 2016/17 domestic season. “Well, I didn’t have a great Ranji season. So I just kept telling myself that I had a number of things in my control now and if I can keep myself mentally prepared, it wouldn’t be too long before I get a chance to prove myself in the IPL,” he said. “I was just focused. I had a terrible Ranji season and I could have been depressed. Especially if you compare the previous two seasons, the last season was nothing.”

The MCC’s spinners, James Tredwell and Samit Patel, combined to take five wickets in Yorkshire’s second innings in Abu Dhabi to set up an intriguing final day

ESPNcricinfo staff22-Mar-2016Yorkshire 275 and 239 for 7 (Lees 86, Tredwell 3-70) lead MCC 299 by 215 runs
ScorecardAlex Lees made 86 in Yorkshire’s second innings•Getty Images

The MCC’s spinners, James Tredwell and Samit Patel, combined to take five wickets in Yorkshire’s second innings in Abu Dhabi to set up an intriguing final day.The MCC could only extend their lead to 24 on the third morning then Yorkshire slipped from a promising 108 for 2 to 147 for 6 with Tredwell and Patel sharing the bulk of the bowling as they sent down 55 overs before them. However, a seventh-wicket stand of 80 between Will Rhodes and Andy Hodd pushed the advantage over 200.Alex Lees had initially anchored Yorkshire’s second innings after Adam Lyth was lbw to Tredwell’s second delivery. He struck seven fours and a six before being bowled by Patel after he had earlier claimed the captain Andrew Gale lbw to begin Yorkshire’s wobble.Tredwell, meanwhile, added to his early strike with the scalps of Jack Leaning caught at slip and Tim Bresnan taken at mid-off to take his match tally to six wickets before the MCC came up against some stubborn lower-order resistance as Yorkshire had done the previous day.Rhodes, who fell five runs short of a maiden first-class hundred in the first innings, and Hodd batted for the majority of the evening session before Hodd was lbw to Jake Ball.Earlier, the MCC had lost their last four wickets for nine runs. Ben Foakes struck two early boundaries but was then bowled by Karl Carver for 91 – to end a seventh-wicket stand of 139 with Rikki Clarke – and Carver also claimed Ball and last-man Graham Onions to finish with 4 for 106.

Nottinghamshire lost three wickets in five overs before the close after half-centuries from Varun Chopra and Jeetan Patel had provided the backbone of Warwickshire’s 298

Les Smith at Trent Bridge03-Sep-2013
ScorecardVarun Chopra led Warwickshire with 76•PA Photos

There was an audible sigh in the voice of the Trent Bridge PA announcer when he delivered Michael Lumb’s mode of dismissal and score just before close of play. Nottinghamshire had lost three wickets in the first four overs of their innings and Warwickshire were firmly in control. Notts have not yet secured Division One survival and there was an air of weary resignation among their supporters in the New Stand.A flourish with the bat late in the day by New Zealand international Jeetan Patel, batting at No. 9, had put Warwickshire in a position to press their advantage. Patel has 276 Test match runs – not that many but scored at the highest level. His highest Championship score this year is 78 not out, made in his previous match, and there was nothing about the way he went about his business here to suggest he wouldn’t have surpassed that had he not run out of partners when was on 66.Patel was the senior partner in the day’s key partnership. When he was joined by 18-year-old wicketkeeper Peter McKay, playing only his second first-class match, Warwickshire were on 192 for 8 and it seemed they might be fortunate to reach 200. As it was, the pair put on 88, the biggest partnership of the innings. McKay made 33, 16 of them batting with a runner after he sustained a leg injury that prevented him from keeping wicket at the end of the day. Patel finished with 66 off just 76 balls, with nine boundaries.Warwickshire’s other significant stand featured Varun Chopra and Laurie Evans, who put on 73 for the fourth wicket. Chopra looked in complete control from the moment he faced the first ball of the match until he swished at a wide ball from Luke Fletcher and gave wicketkeeper Chris Read the first of two brilliant diving catches in successive overs. It was Evans who went next, off the bowling of Andre Adams.

Notts players in early IPL talks

Alex Hales and Michael Lumb will have a meeting with Nottinghamshire’s director of cricket, Mick Newell, at the end of the month to discuss whether they can appear in the IPL next year, .
Newell prevented any of his players from missing county duty this year but, with Hales currently rated the No. 1 T20 batsmen in the ICC’s ranking system and Lumb, 33-years-old and aware that such opportunities may not come too frequently in the future, Newell will be under pressure to rethink that stance.
The issue of IPL availability may also be important as Jos Buttler decides which county he will be with next year.

Darren Maddy scored 47 valuable runs in the middle order and also contributed to the day’s moment of hilarity. Chris Woakes turned Ajmal Shahzad behind square on the leg side and Read ran round from behind the stumps to field. Woakes was so surprised when Maddy called for a quick single that he slipped, fell flat on his face, and dropped his bat. He scrambled to his feet and scampered batless, more in hope than expectation, towards the bowler’s end. He was run out by a distance.The mainstays of the Nottinghamshire bowling were Fletcher, now Nottinghamshire’s leading Championship wicket-taker, and Adams. Fletcher nagged on a good length and occasionally shook batsmen up with a fast short ball. Former New Zealand seamer Adams, now 38, delivered his brisk medium pace off an economical run and found movement in the air and off the seam. Both took four wickets.Nottinghamshire’s cause was not helped by some slack work in the field after lunch. Read had an almost unblemished day, taking four catches, but he was one of two players to miss tricky but catchable chances, the other being Lumb who couldn’t hold on to a Keith Barker shot in the gully.When the Nottinghamshire innings began there were five overs left in the day. In the first Alex Hales played no shot to a Barker inswinger and lost his off stump. In the second, nightwatchman Fletcher was too late on a quick Maurice Chambers delivery and lost his middle stump and then when Lumb edged Chambers to second slip the PA man wasn’t able to conceal his dismay.

Richard McInnes is realistic about why he is back in Bangladesh as head coach of the National Cricket Academy: to produce international-quality players

Mohammad Isam01-Aug-2012Among the appointments of foreign coaches in Bangladesh this year, Richard McInnes’ easily stands out, even counting the abrupt change in the senior team’s coach in April. The point is, not many coaches return to a post, so McInnes’ comeback as the head coach of Bangladesh’s National Cricket Academy (NCA) for a two-year period has drawn plenty of interest in the country.McInnes is realistic about why he is back in Bangladesh: to produce international-quality players. “My job is to produce players for the national team, and these players will play domestic cricket as well,” McInnes told ESPNcricinfo. “Hopefully, as a byproduct of their time here (at the NCA), they’ll dominate domestic cricket and get selected for the national team.”My job is to provide very strong support to Richard Pybus (the national coach) and his team. I want to make sure we provide anything they need; players who aren’t on tour for the different formats, they’ll be getting ready here for their particular format, whether its Test, ODIs or Twenty20s. We’ll have a very strong link between the national team and this place.”The seven years since 2005, when McInnes stepped down from his post of manager of Bangladesh’s high performance unit, have seen many changes, the biggest being the increase in international wins and the emergence of a few more dependable players. Back then, he was the man in charge of the only available source of players for a Test team that had many revolving doors.Now the academy, just like the high performance unit, is modeled after a finishing school for cricketers, from where they are just a step away from the Bangladesh A team. But spots in the national team are not completely guaranteed these days, even for those who are earmarked as special talents, simply because the selection panels nowadays won’t punt on a 17-year-old ‘genius’. The player must perform in domestic cricket as well, and McInnes’ is someone who has knowledge of the country’s first-class structure.”The first-class system here needs some work from what I’ve been hearing,” he said. “One of the challenges is the absence of quality fast bowling, and wickets where ball swings and bounces. These are the conditions the Bangladesh team tends to struggle with when they go overseas. That’s not easily fixed because of the climatic and soil conditions.”[For the cricketers] it is a little bit like the chicken and the egg: batsmen get criticised when they can’t do well against fast bowling, but they don’t get 6’4″, 6’6” fast bowlers at home. We’ll try and create some things [to aid them in this respect] here.”McInnes is hardly a fan of a quick evolution. He is appreciative of having a first-class system in place which will, for example, teach a batsman how to bat an entire day. “How do you train someone to bat for five to six hours in a Test match? You can’t train them – that’s where the first-class competition is really, really important. We need players to bat out a day in first-class cricket, come back the next day and bat till lunch on day two. We will try to get players to make big hundreds in first-class cricket.”His primary goal will be to prepare players for each spot in the national team, thereby increasing competition and raising the performance of the incumbents. “If we’re all doing our job, we have two-three players for every position in the national team. [Then] there’s real competition for the spots. Players who are in the national team know that they have to perform well to hold on to that spot.”The thing that I bring [to the job] is making sure we’re thorough, preparing across all areas. There’s an advantage with a live-in programme [like the NCA’s], we have a lot of time to do these things.”McInnes’ is also pleased with the new facilities at his disposal. When he was with the high performance unit, he had spent many hours on the road during his daily commute to BKSP, the sports institute located 40km north of Dhaka. The NCA, on the other hand, built on the Shere Bangla National Stadium premises in Mirpur, comes with its own field and residential quarters.Seeing players who worked with him at the high performance unit make the step up to the international level, has pleased him, McInnes said. “Eleven out of the 13 who played in the Asia Cup [in March] were in the programme. I was in India at the time, watching the matches, and I talked to Mushfiqur [Rahim, the Bangladesh captain] on Facebook. I was very proud of that, and I think a lot of those players understand what they need to do to be successful.”The high performance programme collapsed following McInnes’ departure in 2005, and Shakib Al Hasan, in recent years, has often spoken of restarting it. However, when it first began, the cricketers were not too pleased with the tough training regimen in place, as well as the food that they were served. Now, almost every cricketer from those camps are now either playing for Bangladesh (Shakib, Mushfiqur, Tamim Iqbal), have played for the team (Alok Kapali, Naeem Islam, Shahadat Hossain, Shahriar Nafees) or are on the fringes, like Shamsur Rahman. And these players remember McInnes for the changes he brought about in Bangladesh cricket and the skills he made them develop.This time around, McInnes will have to deal with the weightier expectations, fueled by the success he enjoyed during that last stint in the country. He will get his first taste of how much Bangladesh has changed since then when the NCA takes on the West Indies High Performance team in September.

The Bangladeshis were shot out for 188 runs in 60.1 overs on the opening day of their three-day practice game against Zimbabwe XI at the Harare Sports Club

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jul-2011
ScorecardMushfiqur Rahim stood head and shoulders above the rest of the Bangladeshi batsman in their first three-day outing as a team in 14 months. The Bangladeshis were shot out for 188 runs in 60.1 overs on the opening day of their practice game against Zimbabwe XI at the Harare Sports Club. But by the end of the day they made a comeback, taking four quick wickets to leave Zimbabwe XI struggling by stumps.Mushfiqur’s dogged 64 and small contributions from Nasir Hossain and Mahmudullah ensured the Bangladeshis at least got close to 200, which looked unlikely when they were 31 for 5. Zimbabwe XI looked uncertain from the very start of their response. Off the first ball of the innings, Tino Mawoyo was dropped at gully off Shafiul Islam. Shafiul then clean bowled Sikandar Raza and got Mawoyo’s edge again, with Mushfiqur taking the catch this time. In between, Robiul Islam bowled Regis Chakabva and Tatenda Taibu was run out, leaving Zimbabwe XI four down at stumps and still 146 behind the Bangladeshis.The last phase of play emphasised how important Mushfiqur’s half-century was in the context of the match. He came in to bat at No. 7, and worked hard on a two-paced wicket. His initial toil of leaving as much as possible and playing with soft hands paid off as he gently took the Bangladeshis out of a terrible position and possible embarassment.After Shakib Al Hasan decided to bat, openers Junaid Siddique and Imrul Kayes were dismissed by the fourth over. Kayes had his stumps disturbed by a Keegan Meth inswinger after Junaid edged a simple catch to the slips off Kyle Jarvis. Mohammad Ashraful was next to go, taken low in the slips before Shahriar Nafees also edged to the slips.When Shakib fell leg-before, the Bangladeshis were reeling. Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah led the fight by adding 36 for the sixth wicket before Mahmudullah fell to seamer Njabulo Ncube. He made 21 off 64 balls with the help of two boundaries.Mushfiqur continued his good work, hammering boundaries, and reached a well-deserved half-century. What also stood out was Nasir’s contribution. He added 72 for the seventh wicket with Mushfiqur, striking four confident boundaries in his 38 off 60 balls.After Mushfiqur became the eighth Bangladeshi wicket to fall, the tail added 21 runs with Shafiul Islam hitting 16 off 13 balls.Among the bowlers, Ncube ended up with three wickets but it was the first spells of Meth, Jarvis and Tendai Chatara that had the Bangladeshis in trouble. Meth and Jarvis had two wickets each while Prosper Utseya too ended with a couple.

Craig Kieswetter hit his first County Championship half-century of the season as Somerset reached 517 all out on the second day against title-chasing Nottinghamshire at Taunton

30-Jul-2010

ScorecardCraig Kieswetter hit his first County Championship half-century of the season as Somerset reached 517 all out on the second day against title-chasing Nottinghamshire at Taunton.
It was only the wicketkeeper’s ninth innings in the competition due to England one-day commitments, but he will still have been relieved to hit 73 after a spell of poor form with the bat. Peter Trego made 54 and Darren Pattinson took 5 for 95. By the close Nottinghamshire had replied with 278 for 5 and required a further 90 to avoid following-on.Samit Patel (92 not out) and Chris Read (75 not out) led a determined fightback from 130 for 5 after Matt Wood had made 72 against his former team. Somerset began the day on 423 for 6 and Peter Trego was given a life on 38 when Wood dropped him at long leg off Pattinson. Trego went on to reach his fifty from 61 balls with eight fours and Kieswetter followed him to the landmark in the same over, having faced 87 deliveries and hit six fours.Pattinson claimed his fifth wicket when Trego drove a catch to Mark Wagh at deep cover. Trego and Kieswetter had added 113 for the seventh wicket, but worryingly for Nottinghamshire the ball was starting to turn, as Kieswetter found to his cost when bowled by Patel.Alfonso Thomas added an unbeaten 30 at the end of the innings and Nottinghamshire were left with six overs to face before lunch, which they reached at 15 without loss. Wood and Alex Hales extended their opening stand to 41 before Hales was caught at slip by Marcus Trescothick off the fifth ball of Murali Kartik’s first over.It was 48 for 2 when Wagh, on four, drove Trego to Zander de Bruyn at short extra cover, one of several imaginative field placings in catching positions in front of the bat placed by Trescothick.
Wood reached his half-century from 87 balls with nine fours, punishing anything short with some attractive off-side shots, but with the total on 119 he edged another left-arm spinner, Arul Suppiah, to Trescothick at slip.It was 128 for 3 at tea and Nottinghamshire looked to be slipping into deep trouble when Charl Willoughby struck twice in the first over of the evening session. First he had Dave Hussey taken low down by Trescothick, his third slip catch. Then two balls later Alistair Brown lifted a good length ball straight to De Bruyn at cover.Read survived a difficult chance to Kartik at slip off Willoughby on five and gradually helped Patel turn the innings around. Patel’s reached his fifty from 103 balls, with eight fours and a six, while
Read’s half-century came from just 58 deliveries and featured 11 boundaries. By the close they had put on 148 in testing circumstances to keep Nottinghamshire in the match.

The trio are among seven players banned by CSA for their involvement in attempts to fix matches during the 2015-16 Ram Slam Challenge

Firdose Moonda29-Nov-2024Former South Africa cricketers Lonwabo Tsotsobe and Thami Tsolekile, along with former Titans bowler Ethy Mbhalati, have been arrested and charged with five counts of corruption under Section 15 of the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act, 2004.They have been charged under section 15 of the Act, which relates to corrupt activities relating to sporting events, including accepting or offering to accept any gratification from another person for engaging in any act which threatens to undermine the integrity of a sporting even or influence the run of play.Related

• Gulam Bodi sentenced to five years in prison

The charges date back to the match-fixing saga surrounding the 2015-16 Ram Slam Challenge. These three players are among seven who were banned by Cricket South Africa in 2016 and 2017 for their involvement in attempts to fix matches during the domestic T20 tournament.Gulam Bodi has already served time in prison while Jean Symes and Pumi Matshikwe were given suspended sentences after pleading guilty in 2021 and 2022 respectively. The cases against Tsotsobe, Tsolekile and Mbhalati are postponed until February 2025.There are no details on any action against the seventh player, Alviro Petersen.All seven players were also given bans of between two and 12 years by CSA, related to their involvement in the game.The Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act came into effect in the aftermath of the Hansie Cronje match-fixing scandal in 2000, and it is understood that this is the first time it is being used to charge sportspersons with offences. The charges have been laid following an investigation by the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation (DPCI), known as the Hawks, a special branch of the South African Police Service that investigates organised and economic crime.”Corruption undermines the integrity of sport, and the Hawks are determined to safeguard the values of fairness and professionalism in all areas of society. We thank Cricket South Africa for their cooperation and commitment to addressing this scourge,” Lieutenant General Godfrey Lebeya, National Head of the DPCI, said in a statement issued on Friday.At the time of initial investigation, CSA said none of the matches in the tournament were affected by fixing after the conspirators’ plans were foiled. It has since been established that Bodi, in collusion with bookmakers from India, approached several players to participate in fixing three matches in the tournament and also understood that none of the fixes actually took place.

Superchargers pull victory out of the fire after home side suffer disastrous late collapse

ECB Reporters Network09-Aug-2023Trent Rockets threw away what had seemed a guaranteed first win of the season, losing five wickets in the space of 13 balls to collapse from 102 for 2 107 for 7 before losing by nine runs against Northern Superchargers.With opener Bryony Smith hitting nine fours and three sixes in a superb 70 off 44 balls, Rockets had looked entirely comfortable, needing 43 to win with 35 balls left. But spinners Lucy Higham – herself a former Rocket – and Linsey Smith turned the match on its head in a dramatic conclusion that saw the Superchargers pick up their second win in the competition and leaves Rockets winless after three matches.Superchargers had backed themselves to defend a target after winning the toss, posting 134 for 4 from 100 balls, Phoebe Litchfield leading the way with 38 from 27 balls after Jemimah Rodrigues had opened with 33 from 32, the total bolstered by Bess Heath’s 23 from 10 at the death.Nat-Sciver Brunt admitted she would have batted first too, given the chance, but Katherine Sciver-Brunt limited the consequences of losing the toss, conceding only eight runs from 15 balls in the powerplay. At the other end, left-arm spinner Kirstie Gordon benefitted from the pressure Sciver-Brunt created as Marie Kelly skewed her first ball to short third, the Superchargers posting 24 for 1 from 25.Rodrigues got lucky on 17 when an edge off Naomi Dattani struck keeper Lizelle Lee on the knee, and again on 20, driving Gordon on the off side, where Fran Wilson put down a good chance at extra cover, but then Alexa Stonehouse struck an important blow for Rockets just past halfway, bowling the India star behind her legs for 33.Superchargers, needing boundaries, lost Georgia Wareham to some excellent work from Lee standing up to Dattani, the South African grabbing a thin top edge above her head, after which Litchfield, having heaved a six over cow corner off Alana King, holed out attempting a repeat.But Heath whacked a six and three fours to lift the total, with Katherine Sciver-Brunt oddly not bowled out.It did not look enough as the Rockets put themselves ahead of the game by collecting 33 without loss from the first 25, Superchargers offering too much width to Smith and Lee, although the former was put down on 21 when Alice Davidson-Richards shelled a straightforward catch at mid-off.Lee eventually departed for 16, caught at deep midwicket, but by the halfway point the target was already down to 64, the irrepressible Smith smiting big sixes off Wareham and Lucy Higham to reach 50 from 32 balls, her second half-century in the 100-ball format.The 25-year-old right-hander muscled a third maximum, this time off Linsey Smith, before another mighty slog off Wareham at last found a fielder, Higham taking her second catch to end what had looked nailed on as the match-winning innings.Rockets needed 33 from the final 25, yet suddenly the picture changed with only seven runs accrued from the next 16 balls and five wickets lost. Higham bowled both Nat Sciver-Brunt and Wilson in the space of three balls with her clever offbreaks, Smith took two in four to dismiss Jo Gardner and Harmanpreet Kaur – again both bowled – before Higham resumed with a third in the space of four balls, hitting the target again as Dattani’s swing failed to connect.Suddenly the contest was down to the last five deliveries and Rockets, having looked almost home and dry minutes earlier, needed an implausible 24 to win, falling 10 short despite Katherine Sciver-Brunt’s six off the last ball.