1 week ago We’ve ticked a few boxes – Brendon McCullum impressed by Harry Brook’s captaincy

The England head coach says Brook and Test skipper Ben Stokes are “two good leaders and two very different personalities”.

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2 w. ago England beat West Indies by 143 runs in second women’s cricket ODI – live reaction

Updates from Leicester; play starts at 1pm BSTFirst ODI report: Smith takes five | Email Tanya4th over: England 26-0 (Beaumont 10, Jones 15) A sharp delivery from Fraser almost gets through Jones, who is able to deflect it onto the pad. When Fraser gets it right she looks a proper bowler; her problem at this stage is consistency. That’s a good second over, with just one run off the bat – and that came from a misfield.3rd over: England 24-0 (Beaumont 10, Jones 14) Another boundary for Amy Jones, clipped crisply through midwicket off James. England are off to a flyer. Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Jamie Smith in a ‘great place’ to attack India in marquee Test series

Smith had never opened in List A cricket before.

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3 w. ago Jamie Smith reveals England’s future potential after clean sweep over West Indies

Smith bludgeoned 10 fours and three sixes for his first fifty in his 13th one-day international.

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3 w. ago Jamie Smith’s rapid response to West Indies fireworks sets up ODI sweep for England

England 246/3 bt West Indies 251/9 by seven wickets (DLS)Batter hits quickfire 64 to drive run chaseA day that started for England with walks and bike rides ended with runs, and plenty of them. A barrage of boundaries from Jamie Smith and Ben Duckett saw the home side take control of a match that was delayed after the players got stuck in traffic and then abbreviated by rain, before an explosive cameo from Jos Buttler saw them speed to victory by seven wickets, with 62 balls to spare.The series thus ended as it started, with a one-sided victory. The match in between was much more competitive but this was a very different display from England, whose fielding was as sharp as it had been sloppy on Sunday, and in particular from their openers, who in Cardiff had scored a combined total of nothing but here each reached rapid half-centuries. Continue reading...

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3 w. ago England’s Smith takes five after Jones and Beaumont tons in ODI canter past West Indies

1st ODI: England, 345-6, bt West Indies, 237, by 108 runsDebutant spinner Smith takes superb five for 36In Charlotte Edwards’s first press conference as England head coach back in April, she was pretty clear about her priorities: “I think we’ve got to look at our ODI game. I think that’s probably an area that we’ve underperformed in for a while.” Perhaps nobody epitomised that more than Amy Jones, who in 12 years of international cricket – including 97 ODIs – had never scored a century.On Friday at Derby, with Edwards grinning away on the dressing-room balcony, Jones punched through the off-side for the boundary which finally broke that duck. They say the years are short, while the days are long: the five overs which Jones spent in the nervous 90s felt almost as long as the 12 years which preceded them. Continue reading...

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3 w. ago Harry Brook and Brendon McCullum have full faith Jamie Smith can open in ODIs

Smith will open alongside Ben Duckett to start England’s three-match series against the West Indies

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