Category: Cricket

New Zealand responded to their test series defeat by beating England in the 1^st ODI at Lords by 5 wickets thanks to the superb batting of Martin Guptill. The Kiwi batsman scored an unbeaten 103 with a boundary to finish and give New Zealand victory.

It was Kiwi captain Brendon McCullum who won the toss at Lords, but opted to put England into Bat. The Three Lions started comfortably, with both Captain Alastair Cook and Ian Bell easing their way into their innings until Bell was caught by Ronchi from a Southee delivery on 18; and Cook falling to the same combination on 30. From 45-0; England fell to 50-2. On form batsman Joe Root and Jonathan Trott steadied the ship until Root fell to the hands of McCullum. McCullum then took his second wicket as Trott was caught by Ross Taylor. Eion Morgan, who has been prolific for England in recent ODIs, fell for just 6 and England were now 126-5. Further down the order, Woakes and Bresnan added to the England total scoring 36 and 25 respectively. England ended their innings with an under par score of 227-9 after 50 overs.

The New Zealand innings started appallingly as both Ronchi and Williamson both went out for ducks. Before you could blink New Zealand were 1-2. However, two excellent batting performances from Ross Taylor and Martin Guptill arguably won the Kiwis the match as they together formed a 125 run partnership before Taylor was eventually caught out by Buttler. Anderson therefore claimed his three wicket of the match to again score a respective bowling average of 3-31 off 9 overs with an economy of 3.44. However, it was to be Guptill’s innings although at one point he was nearly caught out. The opener kept his head to score a magnificent century to give New Zealand a 1-0 series lead with 2 games to play.

For England; much thinking is needed before the second ODI in Southampton on Sunday- perhaps it’s the new red kit that is to blame…

England bowler Stuart Broad insists England are fully prepared for the upcoming First Test against New Zealand at Lord’s; which starts this coming Thursday.

England played out a hard fought 0-0 series in New Zealand at the beginning of the year and Broad, 26, is looking forward to take on the Kiwis in front of a home crowd.

“New Zealand played fantastically in New Zealand, and we may have been under par but we are determined to put that right. We have a huge summer ahead of us, but at the moment we are fully focused on the test on Thursday.”  Broad said to Sky Sports. “We know we can perform better than we did in NZ, they’re a tough fighting side and we know the challenges they offer.”

Broad is keen, like the majority of the England side, to regain their ruthless test match record on British soil that the team have created over the past few years. “we’ve shown we have the character to rescue test matches from desperate situations- and shown character to go and score 450+ in an opening innings and make the game comfortable for ourselves,” said the Nottinghamshire bowler, “the first session is the most important, the first innings is where you set up the test match and hope to not aim to save it.”

Catch the Action from Lord’s live on Sky Sports, or highlights on Channel 5 every evening.

Sussex began their county championship campaign against Yorkshire at Headingly cricket ground. Sussex were looking to start strong in this season’s top division but Yorkshire, celebrating their 125^th anniversary, hoped to celebrate with a win.

Sussex were in full control on day one, bowling out Yorkshire for a low score of just 96. Debutant Chris Jordan was the hero of the innings, with figures of 6-48. And the team from the south coast finished the day on 104-2.

Sussex were bowled out for 356 in their first innings, with Joyce and Brown leading the attack for the southern county. They both scored 90’s on their way to cementing a huge lead for Sussex.

Yorkshire fought as hard as they could to snatch a draw but Sussex bowled them out for 248, meaning that Sussex won the match by a huge innings and 12 runs. The win leaves the county joint top of Division one, and a dream start to 2013.