County cricket

Inter-county cricket matches are known to have been played since the early 18th century, involving teams that are representative of the historic counties of England and Wales. Since the late 19th century, there have been two county championship competitions played at different levels: the County Championship, a first-class competition which currently involves eighteen first-class county clubs; and the Minor Counties Championship, which currently involves nineteen English county clubs and one club that is representative of several Welsh counties.

History
County cricket started in the eighteenth century, the earliest known inter-county match being played in 1709, though an official County Championship was not instituted until 1890. Having already been badly hit by the Seven Years' War, county cricket ceased altogether during the Napoleonic Wars and there was a period from 1797 to 1824 during which no inter-county matches took place.

Development of county cricket
Inter-county cricket was popular throughout the 18th century, although the best team, such as Kent in the 1740s or Hampshire in the days of the famous Hambledon Club, was usually acknowledged as such by being matched against All-England. The most successful county teams were Hampshire, Kent, Middlesex, Surrey and Sussex. There was, however, often a crossover between town and county with some strong local clubs tending at times to represent a whole county. Examples are London, which often played against county teams and was in some respects almost a county club in itself; Slindon, which was for a few years in the 1740s effectively representative of Sussex as a county; Dartford, sometimes representative of Kent; and the Hambledon Club, certainly representative of Hampshire and also perhaps of Sussex. One of the best county teams in the late 18th century was Berkshire, which no longer has first-class status.

Virtually tainted Indian cricketer- Vinoo Mankad

Full name Mulvantrai Himmatlal Mankad was a batter who achieved recognition after setting opening partnership of 413 runs, with Pankaj Roy, in 1956, a record that stood for 52 years. Though, the record was shaken up by Neil McKenzie and Graeme Smith in 2008.

Brilliant Brathwaite powers Windies to second World T20 title

West Indies' Carlos Brathwaite smashed England's Ben Stokes for four successive sixes to snatch a sensational four-wicket win in Sunday's World Twenty20 final as the Caribbean side became the first team to win the title twice.

Australia rue middle over woes, fickle T20, Kohli genius

Australia captain Steve Smith, while tipping his hat to a brilliant innings from India's Virat Kohli, was left ruing his team's middle overs malaise after their sixth attempt to win the World Twenty20 came up short in Mohali.

Kohli's magnificent 82 not out from 51 balls helped India overhaul Australia's 160 with five balls to spare on Sunday, sending the hosts into the semi-finals as Group 2 runners-up and  Smith's men home.

Smith was quick to pay tribute to Kohli's "seriously unbelievable" knock but said Australia had contributed to their failure to sustain a challenge for the one major international trophy they have never won.

Dismissing criticism of Australia's preparations and the make-up of the squad, Smith said it had been in the execution of their skills that the players had fallen short.

"You have to try and find your best 15, particularly in these conditions, and I think we had the right 15, we just let ourselves down in key moments," he told reporters in his post-match news conference.

"Obviously we haven't done as well as we'd have liked in this format but hopefully we'll continue to improve."

The "conditions", slow pitches which favour spin bowling, were a recurring theme throughout Smith's postmortem of the campaign but it was the batting in the middle overs that he pinpointed.

"We probably let ourselves down in the middle overs again ... losing a few wickets in clumps, not being able to get that partnerships together to get the score above par to 170-odd, so that was a bit disappointing," Smith added.

"But I think the players will learn a lot from this tournament, playing in these conditions again, it's very valuable and hopefully we can continue to learn and get better."

Smith paid tribute to all-rounder Shane Watson, who took 2-23 and a stunning diving catch to dismiss Yuvraj Singh in his last match as an international cricketer before retirement.

"Obviously there's no real fairytales in sport very often," Smith said of his 34-year-old team mate.

"Shane gave his all as he did every game for Australia, I thought he bowled beautifully tonight and looked like he was 25 again taking that catch."

Smith was in mood to complain about his own dismissal despite television pictures indicating he had been unfortunate to be given out for two.

He said the foundations for Australia's demise had been laid in their opener against New Zealand.

"I think we let ourselves down against New Zealand, we probably should have won that game," Smith said.

"To lose that game by eight (runs) was quite shattering. And we were always chasing our tail from there.

"We had to win every game we played and in Twenty20 cricket that's quite hard. It's quite a fickle game and all it takes is one player going off, like tonight, to take the game away."

England reach semis after holding nerve in last over

England held their nerve to beat Sri Lanka by 10 runs in a thrilling World Twenty20 Group One match on Saturday, reaching the semi-finals and knocking the defending champions out of the tournament.

Jos Buttler struck a blistering unbeaten 66 to power England to a commanding 171 for four after they had made a slow start.

The 2010 winners then returned to blow away Sri Lanka's top order before Angelo Mathews fought off a hamstring injury to drag his team back into the match with a brilliant 73 not out.

Sri Lanka's defeat also dashed South Africa's hopes of qualifying for the last four.

"I think we adapted a lot better today than we did against Afghanistan," said England captain Eoin Morgan, referring to his team's mediocre batting display in their previous match.

"We showed we're capable of playing both smart cricket and aggressive cricket."

Put in to bat, England lost Alex Hales in the second over but Jason Roy (42) and Joe Root (25) added 61 runs in 8.3 overs to steady the innings.

Leg-spinner Jeffrey Vandersay dismissed both batsmen but Buttler capitalised on the foundation, hitting eight fours and two sixes in a 37-ball blitz.


Morgan made 22 before being run out and Ben Stokes smashed the last ball, the only delivery he faced, from Thisara Perera for six.

Sri Lanka made a dismal start to their reply as openers Tillakaratne Dilshan and Dinesh Chandimal were dismissed inside the first eight deliveries.

Milinda Siriwardena and Lahiru Thirimanne also went as Mathews' side slumped to 15 for four.

Skipper Mathews and Chamara Kapugedera (30) revived their hopes, mixing caution with aggression and smashing three sixes off an Adil Rashid over that produced 21 runs.

Perera also scored 20 quick runs down the order but Mathews looked tired by the end and could only score four of the 15 runs required from the last over by Stokes.

"We had nothing to lose after we were 15 for four," said Mathews. "Myself and Kapugedera decided we'd target a few bowlers.

"It worked but unfortunately I didn't have a (frontline) batter with me in the last couple of overs. It was a really good wicket...if we had another batter we could have got over the line."

Buttler was named man-of-the-match for his typically belligerent knock.

West Indies reach semi-finals after last-over win

West Indies beat South Africa by three wickets in a low-scoring thriller in their World Twenty20 Super 10 match on Friday to join New Zealand in the semi-finals.

This day- Birth of Eknath Solkar in 1948

Birth of Eknath Solkar, the best short-leg fielder to ever grace the game.