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Spinner prepared for Bob Willis Trophy final showdown after working on his game in lockdown

Matt Roller21-Sep-2020The 290 days between Jack Leach’s 16,511th and 16,512th balls in first-class cricket were some of the hardest of not only his professional career, but his life.Leach feared he was dying after being diagnosed with sepsis in New Zealand over the winter, went home early from South Africa after struggling with illness throughout the tour, and had to lay low during the UK’s Covid-19 lockdown on account of the immuno-suppressant medication he takes for his Crohn’s disease. As England’s back-up spinner, he then endured 10 weeks in their biosecure bubbles in Southampton and Manchester without getting a look-in, spending hours in the nets, carrying drinks and sitting in hotel rooms.So the past few weeks have been a relief for him. He only bowled eight overs in Somerset’s Bob Willis Trophy win away at Worcestershire, but has been able to balance his focus between cricket and life: small pleasures, like celebrating his girlfriend’s birthday, getting the barbecue out, and spending time with his puppy have not been taken for granted.Leach missed out on selection in all six Tests this summer, and admits that there were times when he found life in the bubble very challenging. He says he spent his time playing cards, watching Netflix, and pleading bubble-barista Chris Woakes for coffee, and mentions his close friend Jos Buttler, head coach Chris Silverwood, and team masseur Mark Saxby as three confidantes who “kept me on the right track” when he was struggling.”In an environment like that, you go through a whole range of emotions,” Leach says. “It wasn’t easy – there were times when I felt like I’d like to go home. But at the same time, I didn’t want to miss out on the opportunity to play in a Test match, and everyone understood how difficult the situation was for everyone, and we kept each other going in there.ALSO READ: Somerset seal Lord’s berth with victory over Worcestershire“I wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere else, other than in the group of 20 guys competing for an England place. It became slightly harder when county cricket started again, and you felt like you were missing out on playing. But I kept on trying to make use of it: sometimes, when you’re playing 12 months a year, you’re crying out for a 10-week window where you can do some really good training work to take your game on.”Leach feels like the vast swathes of time he spent training have helped him tweak certain parts of his action, and crucially have helped him develop a clearer process when he is in the nets after working with Richard Dawson and Graeme Welch – a fast-bowling coach by trade, but one who has counted Jeetan Patel as a colleague for more than a decade at Warwickshire.Leach is now jogging, rather than walking to the crease, to add some “energy” to his bowling, and is trying to “keep things in straight lines” in his action having previously stuck his elbow out. He is also keeping the ball in his left hand throughout his action, having previously felt like he was rushing to grip the ball when transferring it from his right immediately before loading up. They are minor changes, but he is confident that they will have a positive impact.”You have to have full belief in your training,” Leach says. “I have a process of how I’m trying to go about things. I look at guys like Lyon, or Jadeja, or Vettori, and they all bowl totally different ways [to each other] but there are some fundamentals there for a strong action. I guess I’m just trying to simplify things: I’m trying to be the best Jack Leach I can be, not trying to copy others, or trying one thing one day and another the next.”Leach has found himself in an unusual situation with his Somerset team-mate Dom Bess this summer: he is the first-choice spinner at county level, but England’s understudy. They spoke about the situation this year as Bess decided whether to extend his contract, and agreed it would be best for everyone if they went their separate ways, with Bess signing a four-year deal at Yorkshire last month.Jack Leach gets a hug from his captain, Tom Abell•Getty Images

“We’re obviously fighting it out for England and for our county at the moment, and that can be quite a difficult situation for the guy that misses out,” Leach says. “You want to feel like you’ve got a club to return to and be a big part of if you’re not playing international cricket. I think it was the right decision for him, but it’s sad to see him go – we’ve had some good times bowling in tandem.”There could be one final opportunity for them to do just that at Lord’s this week, though Bess may be left to run the drinks given the potency of Somerset’s seam attack throughout the red-ball season. As he did in last year’s title decider at Taunton, Leach will go head to head with Simon Harmer, Essex’s talismanic offspinner, and hopes that the result will be different this time around.”If we beat Essex, we’ll deserve to win the tournament,” he says. “It would be a good feat for the club, and another trophy. I did feel a little bit rusty [against Worcestershire] but I think I’ve learned from even a short spell in the middle, and now I feel like the ball is coming out even better. I’m itching to get back out on the pitch and show what I can do.”[The final] is set up quite nicely. I have great admiration for Harmer as a bowler: I don’t want to put too much pressure on myself, because he’s bowled a lot more overs than me this summer. I feel in a good place, but I have to be realistic with myself, and see where it goes. But I do feel ready to put in a good performance. I guess I’ve put a little bit of pressure on myself by saying that, haven’t I?”

The coach pointed to two losses in particular within the first fortnight of this IPL, which affected Royal Challengers’ whole season

Saurabh Somani in Bengaluru03-May-2019It’s been a familiar story for Royal Challengers Bangalore in IPL 2019. Start the season full of promise and fire, stumble from one defeat to the next, end it to avoid finishing at the bottom.In the auctions before IPL 2019, the franchise spent most of its purse on Shimron Hetymyer and Shivam Dube – a combined INR 9.20 crore (USD 1,330,000 approx.). They’ve both played only four games each out of 13 so far, and their purchase for big sums followed by limited opportunities is symptomatic of what, from the outside, seems another season without clear direction.It’s not been an easy ship to steer for Gary Kirsten, one of the two designated coaches for the franchise, with Ashish Nehra. Kirsten had come on board as a batting consultant in IPL 2018, in which Royal Challengers finished sixth. The year before that, they finished at the bottom. Given the run of poor performances – they have won a combined 13 out of 41 games in three seasons – Kirsten acknowledged that fundamental changes might be needed.”There are some structural changes that need to be made that have maybe been around for quite a long time,” Kirsten said in Bengaluru on Friday. “This is my first year as the head coach, so I’ve got a better understanding of what those are. We’ll certainly discuss with our owners and look into that for next year.”It’s been a disappointing season. Obviously we would have liked to have had better results. I’ve been very encouraged with the second half of the season, since we only got two points in the first half. But we’ve won four of our last seven games, and one of them was a rained-out game. So that’s kind of back to the kind of consistency you need. We started to really get things going in the second half, but unfortunately, in IPL if you have a bad start you’re always going to be struggling.”Kirsten pointed to two losses in particular within the first fortnight of the tournament, which affected Royal Challengers’ whole season.”Two big games that cost us that we should have won at the beginning of the season was [against] Mumbai Indians and Kolkata Knight Riders here,” Kirsten said. “We lost both those games having played really good cricket for 95% of the game. Literally in 12 balls the game changed… in six balls. Those kind of games, if you’re not winning them, they start to affect you big time during the season, because we know that IPL is incredibly unpredictable and games that you should be winning, you need to win.”If you are on the back foot early and you have lost most of your games in the first half, you get into trouble in the second half. We have tried to pull it back. I thought we did a reasonably good job in pulling it back in the second half, but it is always going to be tough winning seven out of seven.”Even as he foresaw operational changes in the franchise, Kirsten hoped the playing core would be exempt, though he admitted Royal Challengers were still searching for a group of players they could come back to, year after year.”I’ve always been a fan – as I’m sure all the coaches are in this IPL – of continuity. You want to try and build your core of players and build a culture where you can keep coming back to the same players,” Kirsten explained. “I think the most successful franchises in IPL have done that. We’re searching for that in RCB. While there might be some structural change next year, I’m hopeful and confident we’ll have some continuity in our players.”Because we need to really start building a core of players that we believe in, and back them. I think the franchises that do a lot of chopping and changing every year run into problems. Because IPL is not about an individual performing every IPL, that’s just not going to happen. But if you keep backing guys they are going to come good for you in one season.”The last league game for the team, against Sunrisers Hyderabad at home on Saturday, will be one that Royal Challengers will play without even the mathematical possibility of a playoff spot. The practical possibility had disappeared some time back, and Virat Kohli has reiterated before every game that the team is just looking to enjoy playing the game. However, that enjoyment is tough to channel amid losses.”My view is you are only having fun when you are winning,” Kirsten said with a smile. “I understand the point he (Kohli) is making but it is always tough when you are not winning games. The IPL is an incredibly intense competition. In my view, in domestic T20 cricket around the world, there is nothing even remotely like it and I think all the players feel the pressure, especially guys who are new to the IPL, they come here with their eyes wide open. They cannot believe how intense the games are. Senior players feel that pressure as well.”

Club cricket has been called off this season in Cape Town, but there seems to be no threat to internationals for now. And work is on to make Newlands’ water supply independent of the municipal supply

Firdose Moonda01-Feb-2018The Western Province Cricket Association (WPCA) is working proactively to get off the municipal water grid before the Newlands Test against Australia that starts on March 22, as the region’s worst drought in over a century threatens to turn Cape Town’s taps off.The City of Cape Town has earmarked April 12 as Day Zero, when residents will have to queue at 200 water points to receive an allocation of 25 litres per person per day, and is currently imposing Level 6B water restrictions – which limits people to 50 litres a day – and all areas of life are being affected, cricket included.In October, club-cricket fixtures were cut by almost half and, now, the club season has been cancelled. No more matches will take place between the 70 clubs affiliated to WPCA this summer and there will be no promotion or relegation system. Instead, WPCA will appoint a task team to decide how they will approach the 2018-19 season. Schools fixtures have also been called off, though some schools with access to their own boreholes may continue to play, something that is beyond WPCA’s control.Provincial men’s and women’s matches will continue to take place as normal, as will franchise cricket, and the three internationals still scheduled for Newlands – an ODI against India on February 7, a T20 double-header on February 24 and the Test against Australia in March. While the February fixtures will take place while there is still water to be had, the Test match cuts close to Day Zero and, by the time it is played, Newlands hopes to be self-sufficient.Making use of their own groundwater will mean Newlands will be able to accommodate for the more than 20,000 people expected in the stadium each day without using municipal water in their bathrooms. The borehole water will not be drinkable but other sources of drinkable water are being investigated.Currently, the Newlands outfield and nets are only watered once a week but with the internationals approaching, WPCA management are in touch with the City to seek permission to water twice but will not push for the go ahead. “We are having a bit of a debate at the moment because the outfield is just starting to brown,” Nabeal Dean, CEO of WPCA, told ESPNcricinfo. “We need to ask ourselves if we want the world to see a green outfield when we are in a drought or if we want them to see reality.”While the outfield may end up less pristine than normal, pitch preparation will be unaffected. Groundsman Evan Flint managed to produce a surface with pace, bounce and that had enough green grass on it to facilitate seam movement for the New Year’s Test against India that was played from January 5 and Dean has no reason to believe Flint will struggle with his Australia pitch, especially given the underground water that Newlands has access to.A century ago, the site on which the ground now stands was a lake and Dean was told that if 100,000 litres of water are used from the underground supply, it could be replenished within an hour.The only other commitment WPCA have are incoming tours from English club and county sides, some of whom enjoy spending their pre-season in South Africa. Typically those clubs are hosted at clubs like Western Province Cricket Club, an elite establishment with two boreholes on its site, and Dean said WPCA will therefore “make an effort to accommodate them within the guidelines of the restrictions”.What Dean could not answer is whether it is wise to have international touring teams staying in a city that is about to run out of water. That is up to higher authorities in government, perhaps, and so far, no major events in Cape Town have been called off. The Cape Cycle Tour, the largest individually-timed cycling event in the world, will go ahead on March 11, while the Two Oceans Ultra and Half Marathon is set to be run on March 31, just 12 days before the city is set to run dry.Cricket South Africa were approached for comment on whether any cricket would be affected but had no updates to provide yet.

Australia’s former captain Ricky Ponting has put up his hand for a role with the national team, expressing interest in either a selection or coaching job in the wake of the side’s present slump

Daniel Brettig23-Nov-2016Australia’s former captain Ricky Ponting has put his hand up for a role with the national team, expressing interest in either a selection or coaching job in the wake of the side’s present slump. He recently concluded his coaching tenure with Mumbai Indians in the IPL, and there has been some speculation over whether he may be the right man to help drive the Australian team back to better health.”I’d consider it. I said from the moment I retired that Australian cricket is me. I love Australian cricket and some of the guys that are playing now, I played cricket with them,” Ponting told the . “I’m open to discuss any role with Cricket Australia and whatever they come to me with, I’ll talk to my family and if we can make it work then great, because I want the best for Australian cricket and I think I’ve got a lot to offer as far as that’s concerned.”Ponting reflected on the departure of the former selection chairman Rod Marsh and the unforgiving nature of the job. “It’s a tough job and it’s a thankless job as well,” Ponting said. “If you pick a team and it wins, you don’t get any credit, but if you pick a team and it loses all of a sudden you’re the worst in the world.”It’s a huge commitment; a massive time commitment. I’m still incredibly passionate about the game and about Australian cricket, but it’s hard to find a role that’s going to work both for me and for Cricket Australia.”Since his retirement from international cricket in 2012, Ponting has worked in a range of cricket and media roles, and kept in touch with the team. He was among the select circle of people the team performance manager Pat Howard spoke to around the appointment of Darren Lehmann as coach in place of Mickey Arthur in 2013.

Jacques Kallis will succeed Trevor Bayliss as coach of Kolkata Knight Riders

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Oct-2015Kolkata Knight Riders have signed Jacques Kallis as their new head coach for the upcoming season. Kallis will succeed Trevor Bayliss, who took over as head coach of England in June. Kallis, who has been with the franchise since 2011, was the team’s batting consultant in IPL 2015.”KKR is my family in India and the association since 2011 has been one of the most enjoyable experiences for me,” Kallis said. “I look forward to the new challenge and feel honoured to be part of the KKR family.”Venky Mysore, Knight Riders’ chief executive, said the Kallis signing ensured a smooth transition for the team. “We couldn’t be happier that Jacques agreed to take on the role as head coach of KKR,” Mysore said. “The respect and regard he commands in the dressing room as well as his fondness for KKR made him our ideal choice.”

AB de Villiers has joined Hashim Amla at the top of the ICC ODI rankings following an excellent series with the bat against Pakistan, which South Africa won 3-2

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Mar-2013

Shakib back as No. 1 ODI allrounder

Shakib Al Hasan has regained his position as the No. 1 ODI allrounder in the world in the latest ICC rankings. He takes over from Mohammad Hafeez who had risen to the top spot in January.
The most interesting aspect of this change in rankings is that Shakib hasn’t played an ODI since May 22, 2012 in the Asia Cup final. He missed the West Indies ODIs at home in December through a stress fracture on his shin, and isn’t playing in the ODI series in Sri Lanka either.

AB de Villiers has joined Hashim Amla at the top of the ICC ODI batting rankings following an excellent series with the bat against Pakistan, which South Africa won 3-2. De Villiers scored three half-centuries and a century in five games, averaging 91.75. Both he and Amla are now tied on 882 points in the rankings.De Villiers, who scored 367 runs in that series, had previously reached the top of the ODI rankings in May 2010. Tillakaratne Dilshan, who scored a century against Bangladesh in the first ODI in Hambantota, has moved up three places to No.7 and Virat Kohli is currently at No.3.There’s only one more ODI remaining before the April 1 cut-off date, and India have retained their position at the top of the table. England are No.2, and could have been displaced by South Africa had the latter beaten Pakistan 4-1 in the recently-concluded series. But a 3-2 win meant England kept their place.India, being No.1, will collect a cheque of US$175,000 together with the shield at the next ICC awards, and England will receive US$75,000 for taking the second place.

Narsingh Deonarine’s recall to the West Indies Test team to face Australia is a temporary solution to the absence of Marlon Samuels and has arrived despite continued reservations about his fitness, the coach Ottis Gibson has candidly admitted

Daniel Brettig in Barbados05-Apr-2012Narsingh Deonarine’s recall to the West Indies Test team to face Australia is a temporary solution to the absence of Marlon Samuels and has arrived despite continued reservations about his fitness, the coach Ottis Gibson has candidly admitted.Deonarine acquitted himself well as a batsman in Australia in 2009-10, but after Gibson’s 2010 appointment the left-hander was not offered a WICB contract due to poor fitness results. He has undergone a fresh round of testing ahead of the first Test of this series at the Kensington Oval in Barbados, and Gibson stated that Deonarine had to show visible improvement over the next three weeks.”Partly but not entirely. I can only be honest,” Gibson said when asked whether Deonarine had reached the fitness benchmark set for him. “He’s someone that we need right now, we’re not able to have Marlon [Samuels] in the team at the moment because Marlon’s gone to the IPL as well and he’s a like for like replacement for Marlon, he bowls a little bit of off spin and he bats at six, he’s been the leading batsman in the regional tournament just now, and that’s the role that he will play.”With regard to his fitness, it’s just an ongoing process for him, one that he has to keep on top of because I’m sure he has seen how the fitness of the team itself has improved significantly in the last 12 months. He will know that eventually if he doesn’t make the necessary adjustments to his fitness that the team will move on, as all great teams do, without him.”I’m sure he will meet those requirements because he’s desperate to play cricket. I had a chat with him yesterday and he desperately wants to be here and do his thing and he had some fitness assessments yesterday, we will know the results of them later on and stuff, so hopefully if the message didn’t get through in the first instance, hopefully it will get through the second time around.”Australian observers were surprised when Deonarine was discarded due to doubts about his ability to bat for long periods, after a couple of limpet-like displays against Australia in Perth during a series where the 2-0 margin arguably flattered the hosts. Gibson pointed out that Deonarine’s strong results in this season’s Caribbean regional competition were compelling enough to earn a recall, but had been achieved without the hundreds he expects of his batsmen.”His quality as a batsman has never been the concern,” Gibson said. “It’s whether he’s able to bat a day and a half, whether he’s able to bat the four hours that is required at international level to make a Test hundred. His results will show he’s made a lot of runs this year but he hasn’t made a first-class hundred.”At the same time he’s been putting runs on the board and in a series where not a lot of batsmen put runs on the board it is hard to ignore his runs. I add to that the fact we can’t have Marlon at the moment, so he fills the role that Marlon was playing.”Another batsman facing high expectations against Australia will be the gifted Darren Bravo, who has shown the potential to be the best West Indian batsman of his generation but had a halting introduction to Australian opposition in the ODI matches, losing his place. Gibson said Bravo needed to clear his head and believe in his methods, ignoring the visitors’ efforts to corral him.”He just needs to be himself,” Gibson said. “I think sometimes one-day cricket lends itself to you having to go out in circumstances and play shots and maybe up the scoring rate or whatever’s the case or consolidate when you’ve just lost a couple of wickets and stuff like that. Test cricket’s very different, he goes out every day and starts over, [he should] just be himself and bat the way he batted, especially in India.”He made a brilliant hundred in Bangladesh, but in India he was outstanding, and the Indians, from some of the fields that they set for him, it was clear they had obvious plans for him as well and he scored two Test hundreds. So he is somebody that we have a lot of confidence and belief in and somebody that will take us forward over the next couple of years.”We’re not worried about his form, we know what he’s capable of and he tends to rise to the big occasion as well, so we’re looking forward to seeing him bat over the next couple of weeks.”

After the heavy defeats suffered by Kenya and Canada it’s now the turn of Netherlands to go under the spotlight

Nagraj Gollapudi in Nagpur21-Feb-2011It is a difficult time to be an Associate. With plans to curtail the number of teams to ten for the next edition of the World Cup, the ICC has inadvertently put a psychological burden on the shoulders of the four Associates participating in this edition. The heavy defeats suffered by Kenya and Canada on Sunday have only added to the pressure. So is it time for the Netherlands, who begin their campaign tomorrow against England, to step up the plate?Peter Borren, the Netherlands captain, does not necessarily agree that his team need to win to prove the ICC or anybody else wrong. “The decision from the ICC will not have any effect on whether we should step up or not. We have taken a professional approach to our preparations. What might happen in 2015 will not matter going into tomorrow’s game.”Borren, who has been laid low by an abdominal strain and failed to play in the warm-up matches, had his first complete training on Sunday and declared himself fit play as a batsman but won’t bowl. He also had another take on the ICC move, when pushed to take a stand.”It is hard to have an opinion until we need to prove ourselves out there on the field,” he said. “Perhaps [then] we can make our own statement with regards to what happens in the future of the 50-over World Cup. The Associates offer a lot in a World Cup. Everyone enjoys the underdog doing well and there have been instances throughout all World Cups. We are hoping by pulling off some results that happened in the past we can then ask that question on the field.”One such upset happened when Netherlands shocked England at Lord’s in the opening match of the 2009 World Twenty20. That four-wicket win remains fresh in the minds of both contestants with Andrew Strauss sounding out an alert to his players. “If we are 10 percent off and they [Holland] have a good day, we are in trouble,” he said.It was the first significant victory for Netherlands, who also got the better of Bangladesh last year in an ODI in Glasgow and Borren felt the team are in the right frame of mind. “We have prepared as well as we can. Obviously that night [against England] gives us little bit of the confidence going into tomorrow’s fixture. With the confidence in the team and the preparation we have had in the last two years it would be nice to pull off a victory as we did two years ago.”Still it will be not an easy ride. Even if England enter the World Cup after a long Ashes tour and a 6-1 drubbing at the hands in the ODI series, they remain the favourites with numerous matchwinners in their ranks. Netherlands, meanwhile, will look to their key player in Ryan ten Doeschate, the Essex allrounder and Associate Player of the Year.Though Borren said that all 15 squad members could create an impact, the numbers betray that confidence. Netherlands have had only five centurions in their ODI history and three of them are retired – although ten Doeschate has three tons to his name – and no bowler has ever taken a five-wicket haul.The onus will be on ten Doeschate, Tom Cooper from South Australia and Worcestershire’s Alexei Kervezee, the only professionals in the squad, to influence Netherland’s chances. However, the other man who could play an important role is Bas Zuiderent who is the only Dutchman to play every World Cup match. He appeared in his first World Cup as an 18-year-old in 1996 and hit a fifty against England, 15 years to the day when the teams meet on Tuesday.”If we can create pressure through disciplined bowling in our areas and fielding well I expect to create chances, but it is also about taking them,” Borren said. Only a collective effort can ensure that Netherlands can celebrate more nights like the one on June 25, 2009 and force the ICC to not dim the lights on them.

Plays of the Day for the tenth match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals

S Aga18-Mar-2010Out, four and out
Abhishek Jhunjhunwala had made just one when he clearly
feathered one behind off Jacques Kallis. The Royal Challengers Bangalore were
stunned when umpire Hariharan shook his head, and Kallis’ mood worsened
when Jhunjhunwala then scythed one over slip for four. The next delivery,
however, was chopped back on. This time, no umpire was needed.Bounce, baby, bounce
Dale Steyn set the tone, Kallis followed suit, and
even Vinay Kumar joined in, clattering Yusuf Pathan’s helmet with a short
ball. Against the short-pitched barrage, he ducked and bobbed and made
half-hearted attempts to steer over slip. But when Vinay deviated from the
plan and bowled a length delivery, Yusuf was ready. It went into the
stands behind long-on. The next ball, short and slow, was propelled in the
same direction.Direct delivery
It wasn’t the short ball that got Yusuf though. Instead,
Virat Kohli swooped from short cover and threw the stumps down at the
keeper’s end with Yusuf just short. The ball from Kumble was later shown
to be a no-ball. Would they have attempted such a risky single if it had
been called?Thrice as nice
Praveen Kumar ended Damien Martyn’s misery, and that of
thousands who worship at the altar of stylish batting, with a ball that
crashed into the base of the stumps. And when Sumit Narwal was then
brilliantly caught by Manish Pandey running in from fine leg, the stadium
was abuzz with the possibility of a hat-trick. Praveen steadied himself
and with the crowd baying in the background, breached Paras Dogra’s
defence. Cue mayhem, and the sort of Nou-Camp atmosphere that greeted
Lionel Messi’s goals on Wednesday night.Do I know you?
Kallis and Morne Morkel may be team-mates in the national
side, but seniority asserted itself when the run chase began. Three sweet
clips through the on side raised Morkel’s hackles, and when he summoned up
a brute of a bouncer, fortune was on Kallis’ side, with an odd-looking
stroke flying off the edge and over the slips for four more. With 32 on
the board after two overs, the game was as good as over.Warnie, Warnie
The stadium announcer did his best to drum up support for
Shane Warne when he came on to bowl, but the crowd wasn’t having any of
it. Pandey treated him with some respect though, but when Warne slightly
erred in length, Pandey was quickly in position to mow one through midwicket. An
era has passed?

Crawley makes fluent 41 as rain forces early close at Old Trafford

ECB Reporters Network03-May-2024Kent 203 for 7 (Evison 50* Crawley 41, Balderson 3-62) vs LancashireKent’s Joey Evison made his third fifty of the season but could not prevent Lancashire having the best of the first day of their Vitality County Championship match against Kent at Emirates Old Trafford.Evison was helped by Grant Stewart, with whom he put on 69 for the seventh wicket, a stand in which both batsmen took the attack to Lancashire’s Test spinners, Nathan Lyon and Tom Hartley, on a cloudy afternoon in Manchester.The pair came together with their side poorly placed on 129 for six after George Balderson had taken three prime wickets in 28 balls, but their calculated aggression had enabled the visitors to reach 203 for seven, with Evison unbeaten on 50, when rain arrived five overs into the evening session and prevented any chance of a resumption.But Evison and Lyon’s aggression was in sharp contrast to the watchful opening 75 minutes of the day, in which 45 runs were scored in 17 overs. However, Kent then lost three wickets in four overs. Ben Compton was the first to go when he pushed forward to a delivery from Balderson and was caught by wicketkeeper Matty Hurst for 13.Zak Crawley then stroked a trio of fine fours off successive balls from Balderson but was dismissed for 41 in the next over when his flat-footed cover drive to Will Williams merely nicked another catch to Hurst. And Lancashire’s best period of the morning was completed a few minutes later when Balderson nipped one away from Daniel Bell-Drummond and the Kent skipper was caught by George Bell at third slip for three.But the session also ended well for the home side when Jack Leaning was bowled for four when a ball from Balderson snaked inside his loose off drive and knocked back the leg stump. That meant Kent had lost four wickets for 27 runs and it left the home side poorly placed on 76 for four at lunch.Matters got no better for Kent on the resumption when Harry Finch was pinned on the crease by Williams for three to leave the visitors on 83 for five. However, Evison showed no sign of being overawed and put on 46 with Joe Denly, who then tried to take on Jennings, the long-on fielder, and was caught by the Lancashire skipper off Lyon for 18.By mid-afternoon Lyon was bowling in tandem with Hartley, a tactic to which Evison and Stewart responded with selective attack rather than dull quiescence. Stewart showed a particular keenness to swat Lyon through the off side whenever the Australian pitched short and brought up the pair’s fifty partnership when he thumped Hartley over long-on for six.Only six balls could be bowled after tea before a brief interruption for rain and shortly after the players returned, Evison reached his fifty off 117 balls with a single off Lyon. But joy in the away dressing-room was short-lived as Stewart was caught by Luke Wells off the very next delivery when he pushed forward with uncharacteristic caution and nicked a simple catch to slip.Balderson ended the day with three for 62 and Lyon took two for 42, while Williams, who took two for 28 from 15 overs, needs just one more to bring up his 200 in first-class cricket.