Classy Madsen takes control as Bears bowling injuries tot up | Cricket

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Wayne Madsen on the attack for Derbyshire © Getty Images

Warwickshire 32 for 1 trail Derbyshire 318 (Madsen 144, Brookes 4-63, Patel 4-94) by 286 runs
Scorecard

Wayne Madsen unfurled a century of high skill and courage as Warwickshire and Derbyshire swapped blows on an engrossing opening day of their Specsavers County Championship match at Edgbaston.

In a clash of Division Two's early-season front-runners, Derbyshire chose to bat and made 318, to which Warwickshire replied with 32 for 1 by the close.

The visitors' linchpin was Madsen who steered his side away from early trouble with a classy 144 from 203 balls, his 27th first-class century. It was completed despite a painful blow on the head from a Henry Brookes bouncer when the batsman had 82. After a seven-minutes-and-20-seconds delay for treatment, Madsen carried on with resolve undiminished to at least partially vindicate Derbyshire captain Billy Godleman's decision to bat first.

At 84 for 4 and 209 for 6, that decision looked dubious, but Madsen led determined resistance against a Warwickshire side which suffered another injury blow to its seam-bowling department during the day. Already without Olly Stone and Keith Barker, the Bears lost Ryan Sidebottom who suffered a side-strain midway through his tenth over in mid-afternoon.

Having chosen to bat, Derbyshire did so unevenly in the first session. Ben Slater looked set to continue his vibrant early-season form when he moved crisply to 16 but he top-edged a pull at Chris Wright to mid-on.

Warwickshire captain Jeetan Patel then took two wickets in his first 13 balls. Luis Reece offered a return catch then Alex Hughes top-edged a sweep and was brilliantly caught by Will Rhodes running back from square leg.

When Henry Brookes hit Godleman's leg-stump, Derbyshire were 84 for 4 and needed some shoring up. Madsen, dropped on 13 and 87, obliged with valuable support from Gary Wilson and Matt Critchley. After Wilson edged Wright to slip, Critchley batted positively until he fell lbw to Patel who soon collected his fourth wicket when Hardus Viljoen nicked behind.

Hamidullah Qadri edged Brooks to second slip but then it was the turn of Duanne Olivier (40, 72 balls) to dig in alongside Madsen. The ninth-wicket pair added 67 in 16 overs before Brooks bowled Madsen and Mark Footitt in five balls. Eighteen-year-old Brooks finished with a career-best 4 for 63 and Patel 4 for 94.

Warwickshire were left with 12 awkward overs batting as the floodlights fought the increasing gloom and lost Dominic Sibley who fell to an exceptional catch by Critchley at fourth slip off Olivier.

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ESPN Sports Media Ltd.

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RCB seek quick fix to death bowling woes

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Royal Challengers Bangalore: Lost to Chennai Super Kings by five wickets, beat Delhi Daredevils by six wickets, lost to Mumbai Indians by 46 runs.

Kolkata Knight Riders: Lost to Delhi Daredevils by 55 runs, lost to Kings XI Punjab by nine wickets, beat Rajasthan Royals by seven wickets

Big picture

Royal Challengers Bangalore retained Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers, two of the best batsmen in T20s, ahead of the IPL auction. With batsmen to play around them, it was always going to be a case of RCB's bowling unit needing additional resources. Out of six games, RCB have conceded more than 200 three times and lost all those games.

An interesting second half of the season could be at stake in this game. If Royal Challengers beat Kolkata Knight Riders on Sunday, both teams will have three wins in seven games. If Knight Riders win, a clear gulf between the top and bottom half will start to form.

Knight Riders endured their worst day of the season on Friday, losing by 55 runs to Delhi Daredevils after conceding the season's biggest total. There were also several fielding lapses; match-winner Shreyas Iyer was dropped twice. Despite that, KKR's depth in batting and bowling should provide a stern test for Royal Challengers, given the short dimensions of the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Umesh Yadav is thrilled after dismissing Sunil Narine BCCI

In the news

Royal Challengers will likely look at ringing in a few changes on the bowling front after failing to defend a 200-plus total against Chennai Super Kings. Left-arm pacer Kulwant Khejroliya, who hasn't played since their third match, against Rajasthan Royals, had an extended spell at practice.

The likely XIs

Royal Challengers Bangalore: 1 Quinton de Kock (wk), 2 Manan Vohra, 3 Virat Kohli (capt), 4 AB de Villiers, 5 Mandeep Singh, 6 Colin de Grandhomme, 7 Pawan Negi, 8 Washington Sundar, 9 Tim Southee, 10 Umesh Yadav, 11 Yuzvendra Chahal

Kolkata Knight Riders: 1 Chris Lynn, 2 Sunil Narine, 3 Robin Uthappa, 4 Nitish Rana, 5 Dinesh Karthik (capt, wk), 6 Andre Russell, 7 Shubman Gill, 8 Piyush Chawla, 9 Mitchell Johnson, 10 Kuldeep Yadav, 11 Shivam Mavi

Previous meeting

Knight Riders ran down 177 comfortably in the opening game for both these sides at Eden Gardens. That chase included a 17-ball fifty from Sunil Narine.

Sunil Narine has been dismissed seven times to short balls from pacers in the past two IPL seasons ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Strategy punt

Lynn and Narine are an efficient batting pair because of their varied preferences. Lynn relishes pace: he strikes at 178.8 per 100 balls, and hits a boundary every 3.4 balls in the IPL since 2015. Against spin, he has a strike rate of 127.3, with a boundary every seven balls. Narine, on the other hand, prefers spin: he has a strike-rate of 196.6 against these bowlers, with a boundary every three balls.

Royal Challengers could use a spinner against Lynn and a fast bowler to Narine, with tight fields to prevent singles. That could force both batsmen to attempt tougher shots against a type of bowling they're not comfortable with.

Stats that matter

• Royal Challengers are the worst bowling team at the death this season, conceding 13.29 runs an over in that period. They are also the second-most efficient batting team in that period, scoring 11.49 runs an over.

• In IPLs since 2015, de Villiers hasn't had a strike-rate under 150 against any form of bowling. His worst strike-rate is against left-arm spin: 154.8.

• Andre Russell may have a slight weakness against right-arm legspinners. Since 2015 in the IPL, he has scored just 66 runs off 52 balls, and has been dismissed three times.

Fantasy pick

After their struggles against Super Kings, it's a good time to bank on some untested death bowlers for Royal Challengers, such as Tim Southee, who joined the team late, after missing the first few games due to an illness. In T20s since 2015, Southee has taken 52 wickets, 18 of which have come in the death overs.

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Rejuvenated Royals run into red-hot bowling unit

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Sunrisers Hyderabad: beat Kings XI by 13 runs, beat Mumbai Indians by 31 runs, lost to Chennai Super Kings by four runs, lost to Kings XI Punjab by 15 runs

Rajasthan Royals: beat Mumbai Indians by three wickets, lost to Chennai Super Kings by 64 runs, lost to Kolkata Knight Riders by seven wickets, defeated Royal Challengers Bangalore by 19 runs

Big picture

Sunrisers Hyderabad's bowling unit has been an enigma this season. They have the best economy in the Powerplay, middle overs and death. Twice now, they've defended totals that many other teams would've called 20-25 too little.

On Thursday, they didn't have Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Billy Stanlake. Their captain Kane Williamson was dismissed for a duck and the bowlers had only 132 to work with. Most sides would've looked at not conceding the game easily. Not Sunrisers, whose bowlers triggered a sensational Kings XI Punjab slide. From 55 for 1, they hurtled to 119 all out.

Sunrisers Hyderabad's bowlers have conceded runs at a much lower rate than other teams in IPL 2018 ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Even as this played out in Hyderabad, Royals were enjoying the palaces and what Rajasthan's wildlife has to offer. They've had five days off but now will have to gear up for four games over the next 10 days.

Since their tournament opener against each other, Royals and Sunisers have had mixed fortunes. Two of Royals' three wins have come batting first. Sunrisers' batting, meanwhile, keeps malfunctioning. They have not had a 30-plus opening partnership in their last four games, which, not surprisingly, coincides with Shikhar Dhawan's low scores. Royals' openers have misfired too. But with Rahul Tripathi back at the top, and Ajinkya Rahane discovering a new gear, things could get hot pretty early in Jaipur.

In the news

Bhuvneshwar trained with the squad in Jaipur, a sign that he's on the road to recovery. If he's good to play, then either Sandeep Sharma or Basil Thampi will have to miss out.

The likely XIs

Rajasthan Royals: 1 Ajinkya Rahane (capt), 2 Rahul Tripathi, 3 Sanju Samson, 4 Ben Stokes, 5 Jos Buttler(wk), 6 Heinrich Klaasen, 7 Dhawal Kulkarni, 8 K Gowtham, 9 Shreyas Gopal, 10 Jaydev Unadkat, 11 Jofra Archer

Sunrisers Hyderabad: 1 Shikhar Dhawan, 2 Kane Williamson (capt), 3 Wriddhiman Saha (wk), 4 Manish Pandey, 5 Yusuf Pathan, 6 Shakib Al Hasan, 7 Mohammad Nabi, 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar/Sandeep Sharma, 10 Siddarth Kaul, 11 Basil Thampi

The previous meeting

Royals were handed a nine-wicket thrashing when the sides last met. After Sunrisers restricted Royals to 125, Dhawan and Kane Williamson put together a 121-run second-wicket stand to lead the cruise.

Rashid Khan has had Ben Stokes' number in T20s ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Strategy punt

Stokes and Buttler have been dismissed twice by Rashid Khan in T20s, having faced the legspinner for 13 and five balls respectively. In T20s since 2015, Stokes has been dismissed 10 times by legspinners and averages just 12.6 against them. Perhaps there's a case for Williamson to hold his trump card back for the middle overs when these two are most likely to bat.

Stats that matter

• In the three games this season, pacers have picked 20 out of the 29 wickets in Jaipur, although spinners have had a better economy rate. This is good news for Sunrisers, again.

• Rahane averages 40.3 with 12 30-plus scores at the Sawai Mansingh in the IPL, but averages just 16.4 against Sunrisers across all seasons. What better time than now to turn it around?

• Manish Pandey, who top-scored for Sunrisers in their last match against Kings XI, needs 20 more to register 4000 runs in T20s.

Fantasy picks

Tripathi had phenomenal success as an opener last year. There's enough indication he'll continue to open. Having had a rough tournament so far, he'll be eager to make amends. Among the uncapped players, he's sure to give you good returns without costing your purse much should he fire. He's also certain to start barring a last-minute injury. There's also perhaps a case to pick K Gowtham, who has proven to be a useful lower-order hitter in addition to a few regular overs with the ball.

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Beaton suspended from bowling in international cricket

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The ICC has suspended Ronsford Beaton, the West Indies fast bowler, from bowling in international cricket. Beaton was failed an independent assessment of his action, having been reported for a suspect action during an ODI against New Zealand on December 24.

The suspension will be recognised and enforced by all cricket boards for domestic events under their jurisdiction, but Beaton may play domestic cricket in the West Indies with the consent of Cricket West Indies (CWI).

Beaton will join CWI's ongoing fast-bowling camp in Antigua as part of his remedial programme, following which he will undergo reassessment.

"We are fully committed to working with Ronsford during this period of remedial work which will hopefully accelerate his successful re-admission to the professional game," CWI director of cricket Jimmy Adams said.

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