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Birmingham Bears have signed West Indies left-armer Dominic Drakes on a short-term contract until the end of the Vitality Blast.Drakes, whose father Vasbert played for Warwickshire in the 2000s, will replace Hasan Ali as one of Bears’ two overseas players, with the Pakistan seamer departing for international duty this weekend.Drakes, 25, has been capped 12 times in white-ball internationals and enjoyed had a spell in county cricket with Yorkshire last summer.”We’re really pleased to welcome Dominic to the squad. Dominic loves the big stage and is comfortable taking the ball in the powerplay and high-pressure moments,” Warwickshire’s Performance director, Gavin Larsen, said.”As a left-armer, Dominic will add something different to our pace attack and we can’t wait to see how he fares before the quarter-final.”Birmingham are top of the North Group with two games to play and assured of a spot in the Blast quarter-finals.”I can’t wait to link up with the squad ahead of what’s an exciting time for the club,” Drakes said. “The team have shown to be one of the strongest in the competition and I’m looking forward to adding to their initial success in the closing stages.”I love playing in big crowds and having the opportunity to play in a quarterfinal, plus the chance to go one step further to Finals Day is exciting.”

Hosts still trail Glamorgan by 125 following on but opening pair stand firm once more

ECB Reporters Network27-Jul-2023

Promotion hopefuls Glamorgan are pressing for victory after Derbyshire collapsed dramatically on the third day of the LV=Insurance County Championship match at Derby.After an opening stand of 165 between Luis Reece and Harry Came, Derbyshire lost seven wickets for 44 to be bowled out for 318 but following on, the pair again played well to close on 78 without loss, 125 runs behind.Reece scored 131, his first Championship hundred of the season, and Came 65 but the home side fell apart against the second new ball as Glamorgan secured maximum bonus points.Leus du Plooy made 41 to complete 1,000 Championship runs for the season but his dismissal started the slide with Timm van der Gugten finishing with 3 for 94.Until that second new ball, Derbyshire had looked comfortable as they accumulated steadily against accurate but mainly unthreatening bowling.On a rain-interrupted morning, Came and Reece played patiently with the former reaching his 50 from 162 balls as the pair recorded Derbyshire’s highest opening stand against Glamorgan at Derby.The bowlers were getting little out of a slow pitch and after a brief rain break, it was a lapse in concentration that brought about the breakthrough. Came was tempted into driving at a wide ball from van der Gugten and edged into the gloves of Chris Cooke.It had taken 64 overs but Glamorgan only had to wait another four balls as Brooke Guest, who scored centuries in both innings of the corresponding match last season, was trapped on the crease lbw for a duck.Another shower left Reece on 99 at lunch but he completed his hundred immediately after the resumption with an edge past the slips off van der Gugten for his 12th four.When du Plooy drove van der Gugten to the cover boundary, he reached 1,000 Championship runs in a season for Derbyshire for the first time and although he was dropped at slip off Mitchell Swepson on 33, the wheels came flying off shortly afterwards.Reece was caught off the glove sweeping Swepson and when the new ball was taken, Jamie McIlroy got some late movement to have du Plooy caught behind.Haider Ali went in the next over cutting at van der Gugten and Anuj Dal failed to make the most of a dropped catch in the slips before he had scored when he edged McIlroy behind.At tea, Derbyshire needed another 63 to avoid following-on but the last four wickets went for only two runs in 19 balls. Andy Gorvin was getting the ball to swing in the overcast conditions but Alex Thomson edged a big drive before Tom Wood missed a sweep at Swepson.Gorvin tempted Zak Chappell into a drive which secured full bowling points and when George Scrimshaw was run out, Glamorgan had no hesitation in putting Derbyshire back in.The good news for the hosts was that the sun was now out and batting became easier as Came and Reece combined again to frustrate Glamorgan.David Lloyd rotated his bowlers but Derbyshire’s openers played responsibly to bat 33 overs to the close and give their side a chance of saving the match with Reece unbeaten on 53.

“We had great expectations, but we couldn’t play up to those. All the criticism is quite natural,” admits Taskin Ahmed

Mohammad Isam02-Nov-2021There’s a popular belief – mired more in hope than anything else – in Bangladesh that the team would often pull out a win whenever they were backed into a tight corner.They did it, for instance, when their very existence as a Full Member was questioned. They did it after a big group of players defected to the Indian Cricket League. They did it after they were smashed in their home World Cup.Related

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• Rabada, Nortje set up SA's rout of Bangladesh

So, there was some hope that after losing their first three matches in this T20 World Cup, Bangladesh would feel cornered enough to bounce back strongly. Instead, it was the other less popular, but more regular scenario, that panned out in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday.Faced with two dead rubbers, Bangladesh appeared to be homesick children after a long school outing. They appeared disinterested in the slim mathematical probability of their semi-final chances. Then came the Shakib Al Hasan blow, which reduced their squad to 13 members.Then, the likes of Kagiso Rabada, Anrich Nortje and Dwaine Pretorius, aided by seam movement and bounce, hit them hard. When they were 45 for 6 in the 12th over, Bangladesh were at risk of getting bundled out for a total lower than West Indies’ 55 from earlier in this tournament, or their own 70 all out from the 2016 T20 World Cup.

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Some of Bangladesh’s dismissals appeared to give a window into their mindset. Feeling frustrated in only the fourth over, Mohammad Naim hit one straight to midwicket. Seniors like Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah were undone by short-of-a-length deliveries. Mushfiqur played around it while Mahmudullah didn’t know the ball hit his thumb, asking for a review. Afif Hossain missed a slog first ball, before Liton Das, who rarely faces a left-arm unorthodox bowler, got easily duped by Tabraiz Shamsi.They still have Australia to play later this week, but already the tournament feels too long for Bangladesh. This is usually how ICC events have ended for them. For many years, there have been reports of Bangladesh feeling homesick during long tours, particularly at ICC tournaments. Bangladesh had a poor ending to a bright 2007 World Cup in West Indies. They finished their 2015 World Cup and 2017 Champions Trophy meekly. New Zealand stuffed them in their last match in the 2016 T20 World Cup. They ended the 2019 World Cup with huge defeats, too.What is most worrying is how the batters have gone missing for most of this tournament. Bangladesh’s 84 all out against South Africa was the third time they got bowled out in double figures this year. They have averaged 129 runs in the Super 12s phase. Clearly, something is wrong in their batting in T20Is. The string of ten home matches against Australia and New Zealand on raging turners in pitches in Dhaka didn’t help their cause or confidence.”We haven’t played according to our potential. We are better than this,” an articulate Taskin Ahmed said at the press conference. “We lost games that we were supposed to win. Maybe we are not as good as other T20 sides, but even then we didn’t play up to our potential. I think we could have played better than this.”It could have been a different story if we made even 120 or 125. I think today’s wicket was different. The ball was seaming. There was off-the-pitch movement in both innings. They took nearly 14 overs to score 85 runs.”Taskin admitted that T20s are all about making runs, but Bangladesh couldn’t combine batting and bowling in this competition.”At the end of the day, runs are a factor in T20s. We didn’t have regular big totals. When we did get a big score in one game, we didn’t bowl well on that day. The opposite also happened. We made different mistakes in every game.”Losing is not fun. Nobody wants to lose. We had great expectations, but we couldn’t play up to those expectations. All the criticism is quite natural. We have to accept it.”We have to get over it before the next match, or the next series. We just want to give back one win for the country.Of course Taskin is hopeful. Perhaps he has a point to prove given that he has been in and out of the team throughout this T20 World Cup. But many of the batters, too, had to show their worth. Instead, they now simply appear to want to get out of the bio-bubble in the UAE, having been riddled with defeats, injuries and controversies.

Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta has been dealt another blow with an injured star now facing several weeks on the sidelines.

Arsenal navigate plethora of injuries to top Premier League table

Considering the sheer number of key first team players who’ve been sidelined at various points already this season, Arsenal’s position at the top of the Premier League table is all the more impressive.

The Gunners have endured a torrid season with injuries, much like last campaign, which has severely tested Arteta’s squad depth.

While Arsenal have still begun the campaign very strongly, and are unbeaten in their last 18 matches across all competitions, their relentless succession of fitness problems has affected big-name personnel across multiple positions.

Arsenal 3-0 Nottingham Forest

Athletic Bilbao 0-2 Arsenal

Arsenal 1-1 Man City

Port Vale 0-2 Arsenal

Newcastle 1-2 Arsenal

Arsenal 2-0 Olympiacos

Arsenal 2-0 West Ham

Fulham 0-1 Arsenal

Arsenal 4-0 Atlético Madrid

Arsenal 1-0 Crystal Palace

Arsenal 2-0 Brighton

Burnley 0-2 Arsenal

Slavia Prague 0-3 Arsenal

Sunderland 2-2 Arsenal

Arsenal 4-1 Tottenham

Arsenal 3-1 Bayern Munich

Chelsea 1-1 Arsenal

Arsenal 2-0 Brentford

August proved particularly damaging, with Kai Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Martin Odegaard, Ben White and William Saliba all sustaining injuries.

Odegaard’s MCL knee injury against West Ham in early October proved especially problematic, keeping the captain out for nearly two months and robbing Arsenal of their creative heartbeat during crucial fixtures.

Gabriel Magalhaes remains absent for weeks following a thigh injury sustained during Brazil’s November friendly against Senegal. His regular partner Saliba has battled recurring problems, missing recent matches against Chelsea and Brentford due to an unspecified knock.

Arsenal handed Declan Rice injury twist after pre-Aston Villa update

The England international has been their arguable player of the season.

ByEmilio Galantini 6 days ago

Summer signing Cristhian Mosquera compounds Arteta’s concerns after suffering a ‘complicated’ ankle injury that will require further testing to determine his recovery timeline.

Declan Rice provided fresh worries after limping off late against Brentford with a calf problem, and while the England midfielder insisted he felt “fine” ready to play against Aston Villa this afternoon, Arteta suggests he’s subject to a late fitness test.

Leandro Trossard has missed matches with muscular issues but should return within ‘days’ according to Arteta’s latest briefing, with the same going for Saliba.

Havertz suffered a setback in his knee rehabilitation and won’t return until possibly late December, while Gabriel Jesus finally returned to contention recently after missing nearly a year recovering from an ACL tear.

Summer signing Noni Madueke was out for two months after knee damage against Man City in September, though scans cleared him of cruciate ligament damage. The winger has since returned to action, providing Arteta with a renewed attacking threat.

That is a staggering 10 first-team stars who’ve been sidelined at various points, or still are, with a pretty concerning update now coming to light on Mosquera’s condition.

Cristhian Mosquera facing eight weeks out after Arsenal injury blow

The Spaniard was forced off early doors during Arsenal’s 2-0 win over Brentford in midweek, and according to BBC journalist Sami Mokbel, Mosquera now faces ‘at least’ six weeks out through injury in ‘another blow’ to Arsenal.

The key phrase there is ‘at least’, and it could be as long as two months, with Saliba’s fitness now becoming more crucial than ever.

If the Frenchman is still unable to start, then Arteta will have little choice but to play Jurrien Timber alongside Piero Hincapie for this afternoon’s crunch clash against Villa in the Midlands.

White would then likely be handed his second consecutive league start at right-back for the first time since May, with Arsenal’s strength in depth now set to play an even more pivotal role in their quest to win a first league title in 22 years.

It is important to note that the timeframe for Mosquera’s injury lay-off are initial concerns from within Arsenal, with the ex-Valencia starlet set for further testing to determine his exact recovery timeline.

It is a blow for the centre-back personally after his fine start to life at N5, despite having to contend with being a back-up to Arteta’s first-choice centre-back pairing.

Arsenal believe Mosquera could become one of the best centre-backs in world football in a few years, according to some reports, and nothing we’ve seen so far disproves that theory.

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