Picture by John Clifton/SWPix.com. Will Luxton has enjoyed a century-filled winter in Melbourne club cricket
Will Luxton signed off in style, with a fourth century of the winter for Greenvale Kangaroos, the Yorkshire men’s star captaining his Melbourne side to their second win of the winter.
Luxton, and the rest of his team-mates abroad, are due back at Headingley to ramp up their preparations for the new season, but the man in question looks in particularly good touch.
Before Christmas, he hit three centuries in a row in the Victorian Premier Cricket competition – scores of 120, 124 and 115. On Saturday, in a win over Geelong, he topped them all with a superb 155 off 135 balls as the Kangaroos chased down 303 to win their two-day game by two wickets.
Greenvale were also indebted to their White Rose fast bowler Ben Cliff, who had claimed an impressive 4-54 from 16.4 overs on day one last weekend.
In the same competition, Harry Duke and Fin Bean having been playing for Essendon and Melbourne University and have also posted centuries this winter. Duke’s 24 in a defeat to Fitzroy Doncaster was the best of the latest performances.
Noah Kelly ended in style for Beaumaris with 87 and 32 in a Southern Bayside competition defeat to Murrumbeena.
Unfortunately, they have been relegated. In the same competition, Academy fast bowler Bradley Sylvester claimed a superb 5-42 from 22 overs added to 21 with the bat down the order as St Brigid’s St Louis beat Mentone in the same competition.
Still in Melbourne, Dan Moriarty finished a progressive winter with Caulfield nicely in the Victorian Sub District Cricket Association competition with a pair of wins. He claimed 2-58 from 33 overs in a win over Brighton and then hit 48 and contributed 0-13 from nine overs and 1-14 from seven in a win against Moorabbin.
Owen Smith claimed a wicket in each of two defeats for Deepdene Bears, playing in the Eastern Cricket Association competition.
Yash Vagadia has been in Wellington with Onslow. In his final match, he hit 30 and 48 and took a wicket in a two-day ROBLAWMAX win over Petone Riverside.
Picture by Allan McKenzie/SWPix.com. Ami Campbell hit a match-clinching 71 not out for Gordon CC in Sydney.
It has been wins all the way for Yorkshire women’s quartet Ami Campbell, Rebecca Duckworth, Amelia Kemp and Jess Woolston in Australian club cricket over the last couple of weeks.
Duckworth and fellow batter Kemp, from the Academy, have been playing for Gold Coast Dolphins in Queensland Premier Cricket.
Captain Duckworth hit 11 and Kemp 60 in a 50-over win over Sandcliffe Redgate before the former contributed 17 to victory over Wynnum-Manly.
Campbell has been playing for Sydney club Gordon, who have claimed recent 50-over wins against Campbelltown and Manly. She hit 19 in the first and then clobbered 71 not out off 39 balls in the second.
Jess Woolston’s latest outing for North Geelong on the outskirts of Melbourne saw her contribute 0-8 from six overs of seam and then hit 14 not out in a rain-affected victory.
Picture by John Clifton/SWPix.com. James Wharton and Matthew Revis played together for the England Lions on Friday.
Matthew Revis and James Wharton played once apiece for the England Lions in their limited overs series against the Pakistan Shaheens in Abu Dhabi – on a tour which has been interrupted by the outbreak of military action in the region over the weekend.
The Lions won the T20 series 3-0 and took a 1-0 lead in the five-match ODI series.
The first – and what is almost certain to be the only – ODI was played on Friday, the Lions winning by nine wickets chasing 153.
Wharton did not bat on debut but did take the catch which helped Revis claim his only wicket as the hosts were bowled out for 152. Revis returned figures of 1-14 from four overs.
Lauren Winfield-Hill and Jess Jonassen, who will team up for Yorkshire this summer, have a key fortnight ahead in Queensland state colours.
The White Rose captain and new overseas signing are at the business end of the Women’s National Cricket League competition in Australia.
Queensland are second in the table behind leaders New South Wales, having won six of their 10 matches so far.
The top two teams qualify for the final on March 20, with NSW already there having won 10 from 10.
Queensland and South Australia, for whom our former player Hollie Armitage has been playing, are locked on 27 points in second and third with two games remaining. Queensland hold sway courtesy of a better net run-rate.
Winfield-Hill, Jonassen and co face a pair of 50-over clashes with Victoria a week on Wednesday and Friday, in Brisbane. The Vics are bottom of the table having lost all 10 matches.
Queensland have not played since Feb 5.
Picture by Mark Evans/Getty Images. Jess Jonassen (c) and Lauren Winfield-Hill (second r) playing together for Queensland last month.
Adil Rashid and Harry Brook are two steps from T20 glory with England, and the former has reached a mightily impressive career milestone during the ongoing World Cup in India and Sri Lanka.
England face co-hosts India, the defending champions, in the second semi-final in Mumbai on Thursday after South Africa face New Zealand in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Brook could become the third England captain to secure this title after Paul Collingwood and Jos Buttler, and what an innings he played in victory over Pakistan in Pallekele last week, with his 100 off 51 balls anchoring the chase of 165.
His Yorkshire team-mate Rashid, meanwhile is enjoying an excellent campaign thanks to 11 wickets. He is the joint third leading wicket-taker in the tournament.
Rashid’s first wicket of the tournament was the 400th of his T20 career, and the mercurial leg-spinner’s haul of 410 wickets puts him 12th on the all-time list of T20 wicket-takers worldwide.
Fellow leggie Rashid Khan, from Afghanistan, leads the way on 702, with Chris Jordan the leading Englishman on 446.
Adil, however, has taken more international T20 wickets than Jordan, with his haul of 161 leaving him fourth on that particular all-time list, again behind Khan, who has 193 IT20 scalps.
Picture by Indranil Mukherjee/Getty Images. Adil Rashid and Harry Brook in action for England at the ongoing T20 World Cup.
Yesterday, Alyssa Healy played her penultimate game of cricket before retirement, scoring a special 158 for Australia’s women in an ODI victory over India at Hobart, the hosts racking up 409-7 in a landslide success.
Wicketkeeper-batter Healy, 35, has called time on a 652-game career for all teams across all formats, including playing 297 times for her country.
And here is a player who has previously worn the White Rose.
In 2012, Healy played one match for Yorkshire’s women, a 50-over County Championship match against Sussex at Harrogate. She hit 24 and took two catches behind the stumps in a defeat.
That was the summer her husband Mitchell Starc was playing as an overseas for the county’s men.
In 2019, she then played 10 matches (248 runs, eight dismissals behind the stumps) for the Yorkshire Diamonds in the T20 Kia Super League competition.
In 2022, she also played for the Northern Superchargers in The Hundred.
Picture by Steve Bell/Getty Images. Alyssa Healy celebrates reaching her final ODI century for Australia against India yesterday.