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Roston Chase works through the leg side as he begins the tour in good style•Getty Images

The West Indians were given a thorough examination by a patchwork Essex attack on the opening day of the tourists’ two-month tour of England and Ireland.Essex’s youthful bowlers took their collective chance and there were a number of promising cameo performances during a sometimes frustrating day that ended with the West Indians on 309 for 8.Opener Kraigg Brathwaite weighed anchor for three hours 40 minutes before he departed on 61 just before tea to a terrific delivery from Callum Taylor.Medium-pacer Taylor was the pick of the Essex bunch with 2 for 33 from 10 overs, even though he did not enter the fray until the 48th over as the seventh of eight bowlers used. He added Roston Chase with a yorker that took out middle and leg stumps, but only after Chase had added 119 in 23 overs for the fifth wicket with Jermaine Blackwood, and scored 81 himself.Debutant Sam Cook, 19, who has made first-class appearances for Loughborough MCCU, shone with the new-ball in the morning and was rewarded in his fourth over when he beat the left-handed Kieran Powell with one that nipped back and bowled him.Before his first Essex wicket, Cook had caught the outside of Brathwaite’s bat, the ball landing just short of Varun Chopra in the slips.When Cook was rested after his initial six-over burst of nagging line, length and occasional movement, he had the impressive figures of 1 for 14. He finished the day with 1 for 49 from 20 overs.The slightly more experienced Paul Walter dismissed both the Barbadian Hope brothers either side of lunch, both for 22. The elder sibling, the uncapped Kyle, got an inside edge and played on after a free-hitting 30-ball innings. Shai Hope went when he was late on a straight delivery and was also bowled.All the while, Brathwaite was stonewalling and holding up an end. He needed 38 balls to reach double-figures before he broke loose briefly against Walter, cutting the bowler for four and flicking a second boundary in the over off his legs.”Key is to play the ball as late as possible,” Brathwaite said of his knock on the opening day. “The weather tends to change a lot, it is overcast and the ball swings even more. That’s one of the keys. You need to have that mindset. That will help you get to big scores.”The shutters went up again during the afternoon and he had added just 11 runs from 43 balls before drinks. Refreshed, Brathwaite reached his half-century the next ball, his 135th, when he pushed Matt Dixon square on the offside for a three.Brathwaite was reprieved on 53 when Nick Browne at second slip failed to hold on to an edge above his head off Aaron Beard. Chase was also fortunate when Taylor whipped in a delivery that both bowler and wicketkeeper thought had taken the edge, but the appeal fell on deaf ears.Brathwaite’s 155-ball marathon ended when he completely misread a delivery from Taylor, toppling forward as it thudded into his stumps.Blackwood upped the tempo when he came in, and dented Cook’s figures with two boundaries in an over, one straight, the other square on the onside. Chase lofted Aron Nijar over long leg for six, and Blackwood followed suit to bring up the pair’s fifty partnership in just 10 overs.Chase went to his fifty from 101 balls, followed soon after by Blackwood, who needed just 48 balls to reach the milestone. He then hit his eighth four one-bounce straight past Walter. The century stand came up in 19 overs.Walter had Blackwood caught at mid-off from a no-ball on 58, however after Taylor had ended Chase’s 138-ball innings, Blackwood departed having added just one run after his reprieve. Ryan ten Doeschate halted the run of five successive clean-bowleds by having him lbw.Captain Jason Holder did not last long before Matt Dixon found the edge and Chopra dived to his left at first slip then Dan Lawrence caught and bowled Devendra Bishoo off the last ball of the day.The venue saw fans turn up in large numbers on the day. “This is probably the biggest warm-up crowd I’ve seen,” said Brathwaite. “The English love their cricket, it was good to see the big crowd. Good to see a few West Indian supporters too while batting on the field.”

Riki Wessels’ rapid hundred proved just enough•Getty Images

A stunning century from Riki Wessels helped Notts Outlaws get their NatWest T20 Blast campaign up and running with a narrow six-run victory over Derbyshire Falcons on a Trent Bridge night strewn with records.Wessels made 110 as Notts powered their way to 227 for 3, their highest score in the competition’s history, after being asked to bat first. The 31-year old scored his runs from just 54 balls and hit 11 fours and seven sixes to become the first Outlaws batsman to reach three figures for the county in T20 cricket.Brendan Taylor shared in a third wicket stand of 153 with Wessels, before closing on 67 not out. Dan Christian applied the finishing touches with a brutal, unbeaten knock of 32 from only 18 balls.Derbyshire, who had won three of their first four matches, stepped up tp the challenge of maintaining a run-rate at over ten an over and fell narrowly short, closing on 221 for 5 with Wayne Madsen unbeaten on 85, made from only 44 balls.In front of a Trent Bridge record domestic gate of 14,123 the result was in the balance until the final delivery of the night but Jake Ball, who finished with two for 51, held his nerve in allowing Madsen to take only a single from the final ball of the contest when a maximum would have tied things up.The Outlaws had experienced a turbulent start to their Blast campaign by losing their first two matches, as well as losing the services of three members of their first team squad.Their last fixture had been the defeat to Birmingham Bears at Edgbaston 13 says ago, a contest that saw fast bowler Luke Fletcher sustain a season-ending head injury.Preparations for this match were then further rocked with the announcements that two of their top order batsmen were retiring from the game; Michael Lumb through an ankle injury and Greg Smith, keen to pursue opportunities outside the game.Losing Alex Hales and Samit Patel inside the first four overs, both to Wayne Madsen, who took two for 32, gave no indication that the county’s fortunes were about to change – but they did, quite dramatically.Wessels took 20 from the fifth over, bowled by Matt Henry and 18 from the seventh, bowled by Imran Tahir. The South African leg-spinner featured in the Notts side that made it through to Finals’ Day last summer but endured a miserable return as his four wicketless overs went for 52 runs.Taylor, returning to the side to fill the void left by Lumb’s departure, went through his full repertoire of shots; reverse-sweeping his first ball for four and then flicking, driving and caressing his way to his first T20 half century for Notts, reaching the landmark from 35 balls.His major hand was in getting the rampant Wessels back on strike as quickly as he could and the right-hander made the most of his opportunity by reaching his hundred from exactly 50 balls before hitting Alex Hughes to square leg.The Falcons’ openers put on 55 before Harry Gurney removed Matt Critchley for 20 in the fifth over. His partner, Billy Godleman had taken two sixes from the bowling of Luke Wood on his way to 43 from 19 deliveries but then lost his middle stump to Jake Ball, returning after almost a month out with a knee injury.Madsen and Luis Reece had their side 22 runs ahead at the halfway stage of the innings but New Zealand international Ish Sodhi dragged things back towards the hosts by having Reece caught for 27.The leg-spinner’s next over cost 25 though as Madsen stormed past a 29-ball half century which had contained six fours and three maximums.An improbable chase suddenly began to look achievable as Madsen began to find the boundary at will; 57 were required from five overs and 49 from 4.Gurney then struck for a second time, having Gary Wilson taken at long off. Ball bowled the final over, with 21 still required and it looked all done and dusted when he removed Hughes after three deliveries. Henry swatted a six and single, meaning Madsen needed a six to tie but he could only manage a single to leave his side just short of their target.Neither side has long to dwell on the result. Notts are back in action on Saturday afternoon when they host defending champions Northants Steelbacks, while Derbyshire go to Edgbaston on Sunday, to face Birmingham Bears.

Stuart Broad remains hopeful of being fit for Nottinghamshire’s Royal London Cup final against Surrey on July 1, as well as the first Test against South Africa five days later, despite being ruled out of his county’s floodlit County Championship fixture against Kent, which gets underway on Monday.Broad was forced off the field with a bruised left heel after bowling just one over in the second innings of the Nottinghamshire’s three-day victory over Leicestershire on Wednesday, and is facing a race against time to be ready for the two showpiece occasions at Lord’s.”Stuart has been assessed by the medics over the last 24 hours,” said Peter Moores, Nottinghamshire’s head coach. “They have ruled him out of the Kent game for him to keep getting treatment, and then we’ll wait to see how he responds to that treatment.”The floodlit round of matches represented an early opportunity for England’s players to acquaint themselves with the pink ball, ahead of their maiden floodlit Test against West Indies at Edgbaston in August.”I think he was really looking forward to playing in the Kent game,” Moores said. “He knows it’s a big game for us in the season and he’s been very much a part of the team for much of the last three months.”Stuart has been around the block enough to know that’s the way it is. He’s got some pain and he’s got a lot of cricket coming up so it needs sorting out. It’s already started to settle and we’ll have to see how it goes over the next four or five days.”Broad has played five Specsavers Championship matches for Nottinghamshire this summer, taking 16 wickets at 20.87, to go with another ten in the Royal London Cup.Moores added: “He’s desperate to play in the final, as you’d expect, and it’s been fantastic to have him with us with the commitment he has shown to the club.”We’re all hoping it’s going to be OK. He will do everything he can to be, and now we just have to be patient and see how it turns out.”

Scorecard1:35

County Championship Round-up: Sangakkara falls short of history

It came down to 16 runs that weren’t. In pursuit of a record-equaling sixth first-class hundred in as many innings, Kumar Sangakkara was dismissed for 84 on the final day of Surrey’s scrap with Essex at Chelmsford. The air was muggy with summer rain and the wider game’s expectation. Both dampened spirits. Perhaps Surrey’s stand-in captain Rory Burns summed it up best: “We’re all probably more upset than he is.”Let’s not lose perspective here. Sangakkara is one of five to score five centuries on the bounce. Otherworldly company was awaiting him had he notched just one more. But those five (one of them a double) should be celebrated rather than the sixth-that-wasn’t mourned. Mike Procter only played seven Tests. Don Bradman fell four runs short of averaging 100. CB Fry lost the 1902 FA Cup Final in a replay. Even the three who made it still carried their own regrets.What needs to be said is that if Sangakkara had got there, this would have been the most impressive of the run. His first 79 runs took guts and a lot of luck. History aside, his 286 in this match and twin-centuries last week against Middlesex have seen Surrey avoid two chastening defeats.Simon Harmer thought he had him trapped lbw before lunch on 25. There were a couple of very tight run-out calls, too. His stance, usually so still, had a sway, like reeds moved by a wind you couldn’t notice. Was it nerves? He has played three world finals, led his country during arguably its most politically and socially volatile period and has been shot at while traveling to a match. Probably not nerves, then.Burns fell after bringing up his third fifty of the season, from 107 balls. Soon emerged the man everyone was waiting for. Did he know he was on the cusp of equalling the record? Almost certainly. His wife and two children were present at Chelmsford, just in case. One thing was for sure – he certainly knew the forecast for rain, racing to 25 from his opening 25 balls. It was on. Lunch came upon the fall of Scott Borthwick’s wicket.Then, it looked off and full credit for that belongs to Jamie Porter, whose spell of 5 for 15 in 27 balls – which started with the dismissal of Borthwick – turned the match on its head. Dom Sibley, first ball after lunch, nicked to James Foster, who took an excellent catch to his right. Ben Foakes was surprised and bunted to cover. Sam Curran was caught across his stumps from around the wicket before brother Tom went for a shot too many and edged to Foster once more. Porter had a fourth five-wicket haul and career-best match figures of 9 for 160. Sangakkara, running out of partners, watched it all unfold on 37.For the second ime in the match, it would be Stuart Meaker who batted above and beyond his average to guide Surrey to safety (they were only 163 ahead when he arrived) and keep Sangakkara company. This time he had the added pressure of being the one to see Sanga to No. 6.Kumar Sangakkara fell 16 runs short of a sixth consecutive hundred•Getty Images

As the Sangakkara was taking guard in the middle, Meaker tweeted a photo he had taken from behind the Sri Lankan, as he sat on the balcony padded up, helmet on, surveying the outfield and considering what might be his. “Can he join Bradman and go 6 in a row?” wrote Meaker under the photo. He thought so and his actions spoke volumes.He stopped Porter in his tracks with a resolute defence and a fortuitous boundary. He did the same to Neil Wagner. Once Sangakkara, on 41 from 69, was comfortable enough with Meaker’s aptitude, he flicked a switch. He charged Wagner and thumped him through two men at midwicket, tickled him around the corner and then advanced to place him through square leg – three fours in a row – to take him to his half-century from 72 balls. Halfway there.The home straight. Harmer decided to play to the ego and left deep cover open. Two fours there – Sinatra steps down to the ball, devastating wrists high and over cover – followed by a tip-and-run. Then a moment.Wagner was brought on from the Hayes Close End, with the light fading. A full ball was pushed by Sangakkara to midwicket, on to 79. Then, with Meaker on strike, the field closed. Everybody knew what was coming. Wagner banged in a bumper – a bumper feared and felt around the world. Meaker ducked into it. The ground gasped, Sangakkara walked over but Meaker, still on his feet, shook his head and got up, like a boxer on the receiving end of a hellacious straight right who knows there are others counting on him not to hit the canvas. It didn’t matter. Off they went for bad light and an early tea.An hour and 15 minutes passed. Most of that Meaker and Sangakkara spent sat on the balcony, helmets still on. The light improved. The bell rang at 3.40pm for a 3.45pm start. They got as far as the middle before the umpires decided visibility had got worse. Meaker, probably still bouncer-drunk, had to be dragged off. Sangakkara walked off just as serenely as he had walked on.The players’ balcony was tense. Essex captain Ryan ten Doeschate consulted with the umpire. Burns was brought into discussions too. Sangakkara’s wife got out a couple of books for their children to read. Then, white smoke: play could begin again at 4.30pm. And it did.Wagner, with four balls to finish, cut his run-up in half. Four balls down the off side were left alone by Meaker. One looped up out of the footmarks and over Foster’s head for four byes. Then quickly back to normality.Harmer continued and removed Meaker, bowled around his legs. Somehow. Replacing Wagner was the part-time offspin of Tom Westley. Offspin raised in Cambridgeshire (and refined in Sri Lanka, no less). Sangakkara, on 80, farmed the strike, asking No. 10 Amar Virdi to only play out a couple defensive shots an over. And then the moment they feared.Westley put it above the eyes, Sangakkara had his sights set on a run down the ground. The checked-drive came and sent the ball towards mid-off. Westley reacted well and put in the dive. His right-hand came out and clutched the ball out of instinct. There was no celebration: Westley got up, looking at the ball like it was a door knob he had pulled clean off. By the time he had turned around, Sangakkara was already off. The Chelmsford crowd soon followed. Hands were shaken soon after and a draw confirmed. Life goes on and so does Sangakkara’s legacy.”There have been a few great players [at Surrey],” Burns said. “But Sanga is probably the best. I don’t think I can do him justice with words. He doesn’t need a grubby left-hander who bats at the top talking about him. He’s a bit purer than I am. It’s magnificent – what he’s done in the game, and how he carries himself.”Even ten Doeschate, one of the fiercest and most astute captains on the circuit, didn’t mind letting sentiment get in the way: “We were very careful not to make a farce out of the situation. But we thought Sanga, given how brilliantly he played in the first innings, we wanted to get the game done at 4.50pm, but also give him the chance. We put it out there that that was the best way to speed the game up and give him a chance.”So six in the row was not to be but the wait for Sangakkara’s next hundred won’t be long given the form he’s in – 876 runs in eight innings this season and an average of 109.50. In case you are wondering, that next one will be his 100th career century.

Reece Topley has admitted there have been “some dark days” in his long journey back to fitness and described the prospect of returning to action on Friday in Hampshire’s match against Yorkshire as like a second debut.Topley, the left-arm swing bowler, has not bowled in a first-class match since July 2015 and a succession of injuries has meant that, 18 months since a high-profile move to Hampshire, he has yet to bowl for them in competitive cricket.He was in the Hampshire side that played Warwickshire at the start of last season but, a few hours into the first day, he suffered a broken hand while batting against Boyd Rankin that ruled him out for several weeks. While recovering from that injury, he discovered he also had a stress fracture in the lower back. Then, in January of this year, he learned that he required shoulder surgery as the result of ligament damage caused by diving in the field in a T20 against South Africa in Cape Town in February 2016.Now, at last, he is ready to return. He has been included in the squad to face Yorkshire at the Ageas Bowl and, while he could yet miss out to the legspinner Mason Crane, it seems a return is imminent.”It can seem there is no light at the end of the tunnel when you’re in the gym on your own, day after day, week after week,” Topley told ESPNcricinfo. “And there have been some dark days.”I never thought I wouldn’t play again, or anything like that. But it’s frustrating to see other people taking their chances and moving ahead of you. And I’ve felt bad for Hampshire who have shown such faith in me and I haven’t been able to repay it.”It is not hard to see why the England management rate Topley. Tall, left-arm and blessed with a good armoury of skills – not least the ability to swing the ball – he has already played 10 ODIs and six T20Is and, but for the injuries, might well have been in the shake-up for England’s Champions Trophy squad.His fitness is a worry, though. He suffered two stress fractures in the lower back while at Essex (the second probably because he returned from the first too early) and a third in a slightly different spot (though still in the lower back) after the move to Hampshire.Topley has played just 32 first-class games in a career that is now entering its seventh season and there must be a concern that, like Tymal Mills who broke through at Essex at pretty much the same time, he simply does not have the body to support the rigours of first-class cricket. What sometimes looks to be the world at his feet at other times appears to be fragments of his vertebrae.”Of course I want to play for England again,” he said. “I know a return isn’t imminent, but hopefully I can get some overs under my belt now and go from there. I’m probably a better white-ball bowler at this stage, but I’ve aspirations in all forms of the game. I think I’ve added some pace since the last time I played and I can’t wait to get out there and show what I can do.”I’ve very excited. A bit nervous, too. Hampshire have been very good to me throughout this period and I’m desperate to repay that by helping them win some games.”

Bangladesh wicketkeeper Liton Das has been ruled out of the Colombo Test after suffering a rib injury during nets on Monday. Mushfiqur Rahim is set to take up the wicketkeeping gloves.Liton was hit on the ribcage by a net bowler at the P Sara Oval during nets on Monday. He continued to bat but missed training on Tuesday, on the eve of the second Test, although the session was optional for the Bangladesh team. Scans later confirmed a small fracture.Liton had made a return to the Bangladesh Test XI in the Galle Test, the first of the two-match series, after a 21-month layoff from the format. He had scores of 5 and 35 in the first Test, and held two catches behind the stumps. He took over the gloves from captain Mushfiqur Rahim, who was asked by the team management to play solely as a batsman higher up the order before the two-match series.Overall, Liton has played four Tests, scoring 137 runs and has taken five catches.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details2:48