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On Saturday he edged to slip five short, and on day three he could only make four runs before falling to Prasidh Krishna

Andrew McGlashan05-Jan-2025For the second time in two days, Steven Smith fell agonisingly short of reaching the 10,000-run landmark.On Saturday he edged to slip five short. Then 24 hours later, with a crowd approaching 40,000 watching on during Jane McGrath Day of the Pink Test in Sydney, Prasidh Krishna made a delivery climb from short of a length as Smith advanced down the pitch and he could only fend it into the gully. He became the second batter after Mahela Jayawardene to fall on 9999 runs.Smith will now have to wait until the first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle later this month for his next opportunity to become the 15th batter to join the 10,000 club.Often termed the best since Bradman, Smith will be the fourth Australia batter in the group after Allan Border, Steve Waugh and Ricky Ponting. Ahead of this SCG Test, Border paid tribute to Smith and where he stands among the game’s greats.”Averaging 57 or so is in the top echelon ever, if you take one certain bloke [Bradman] out of it and he’s right up there with the very, very best,” he told newspapers. “As far as Australia’s concerned, we’ve had Greg Chappell, Ricky Ponting, Steve Waugh, those sorts of players.”But now Steve [Smith] ranks equally with that group, no problems whatsoever. I’m a huge fan of Tendulkar and Lara, they were phenomenally good cricketers, but Steve is definitely up with that lot, for sure.”It has felt like a run-scoring feat that Smith was destined to achieve – he was the fastest to 8000 Test runs and second fastest to the 9000 mark – although the final climb to the summit has taken longer than expected after a relatively lean 2023-24 season which included a brief spell as opener following David Warner’s retirement. Back-to-back centuries in Brisbane and Melbourne left him on the brink, but now the wait goes that big longer.Smith is likely to captain Australia on the upcoming tour of Sri Lanka where Pat Cummins is expected to miss at least one Test for the birth of his second child.

Brisbane Heat captain Jess Jonassen did her best to keep the chase alive after rain but there was too much to do

Alex Malcolm01-Dec-2024An all-round masterclass from Hayley Matthews helped Melbourne Renegades break their WBBL title-drought in a nail-biting rain-affected final against Brisbane Heat at the MCG.Matthews made 69 off 61, took 2 for 24 with the ball and claimed a critical catch to continue her extraordinary record in T20 finals and guide the struggling franchise claim their first championship just a season after finishing last. Heat’s finals heartbreak continued after losing last year’s decider by three runs at Adelaide Oval.A sloppy fielding effort saw Heat concede 141 for 9 when they could have reduced Renegades to 76 for 5 after 12 overs. A top-order collapse either side of a rain delay then saw them needing 61 from 30 with five wickets in hand. Jess Jonassen nearly pulled off the impossible, smashing 44 not out from 28 balls but Heat still fell short. Five of Renegades’ six bowlers chipped in with wickets while Wareham was the most economical, conceding just 12 runs from two overs.

Renegades rocked by early rust

After qualifying for the final, Renegades had to wait eight days between matches and the rust showed early. Courtney Webb slapped a pull shot straight to midwicket and Sophie Molineux sliced a cut shot to backward point. Deandra Dottin was run out in dozy circumstances, without facing a ball, to sum up Renegades’ sleepy start. Dottin was jogging through for a single to deep midwicket when she got her bat stuck in the turf on the popping crease as she slid it to make her ground and her foot did not touch down before Georgia Redmayne broke the stumps. It left Renegades 23 for 3 in the fifth over and in real danger of capitulating despite Heat’s bowling not looking overly threatening on a pretty good surface.

Cool-headed Hayley holds firm

Matthews remained unflustered. She was not striking the ball cleanly, struggling to 6 off 15 at one point. But two boundaries in the sixth over off the legspin of Grace Parsons helped her find some rhythm. Wareham was an important foil in a steadying 41-run stand. Wareham struck three boundaries in her run-a-ball 21 before holing out to long-on off Parsons. The legspinner should have had another straight away when Stalenberg skied her to deep midwicket, but Charli Knott dropped the chance diving forward. It proved a key moment.Instead of being 76 for 5 after 12 overs, Renegades took the power surge after just four-down. Matthews stepped up, thumping Shikha Pandey for three boundaries in the over. Jonassen then opted for spin in six of the last seven overs, with the exception of one from Lucy Hamilton. It worked to some degree, as Renegades scored just 50 from 42 balls, but it was odd to see Nicola Hancock bowl just one over in the final after being Heat’s star in last year’s decider with 3 for 23. Heat did take a wicket in each of the last five overs. Hamilton was the pick of the bowlers with 1 for 19 from her four including the dangerous Nicole Faltum. But Matthews was able to club three boundaries in the last three overs, all from the offspin of Knott.Jess Jonassen did her best to keep Brisbane Heat in the chase•Getty Images

Horror Heat start compounded by rain

Grace Harris held the key in the chase, and the decision to open with Charis Bekker’s left-arm orthodox proved a masterstroke for Renegades. Harris holed out trying to loft over mid-on for a second ball duck. Jemimah Rodrigues miscued Milly Illingworth to cover in the next over as Heat fell to 11 for 2 before a critical rain shower came after 3.2 overs. Rain had been forecast for some point in the afternoon and had been a factor in Heat’s decision to bowl first. But no one was sure how long the shower would last and how it would impact the chase.The rain lasted long enough to knock off eight overs but Heat’s poor start meant Duckworth-Lewis-Stern set them 98 to win off 12 overs with only eight wickets in hand and one power surge over to use. Renegades continued the trial by spin after the rain and Heat were doused. Molineux bagged the key wicket of Redmayne before Matthews added to her finals aura with two wickets in two balls, including Laura Harris for a first ball duck, to leave Heat 37 for 5 needing 61 from 30 balls.

Jonassen almost pulls off a miracle

Heat’s captain almost did it. Boundaries in each of the next two overs keep them within touching distance of the alarming required rate before she opted to take the surge with 43 needed from 18. Molineux opted to bowl just the second over of pace for the innings and Dottin got clobbered. Two length balls on the pads sailed to midwicket for six and four respectively. Jonassen lofted the next over cover for two more as Renegades fans started to get nervous.But a mistake from Lauren Winfield-Hill off the next delivery proved costly. Jonassen wanted a second run to deep midwicket to retain the strike, Winfield-Hill denied her. The English import miscued the next to Matthews at mid-off to fall for 3 off 5. Hancock then faced a dot and the equation was 30 off 12. Matthews bowled two long hops that were both smashed to the fence but was able to close out the over without any more damage. Molineux returned to bowl the last with Heat needing an unlikely 19. She gave up just 11 including a consolation six off the last ball, sealing Renegades’ first WBBL title.

Captain Niki Prasad wants to make sure team “stays on top” after a dominant display in Malaysia where India cruised unbeaten to a second Women’s U-19 World Cup title

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Feb-2025″Coming at the start of the tournament, I think I mentioned one thing that we are here to dominate, we are here to make sure that India stays on top.”Those were the words of India captain Niki Prasad after she led India to a second consecutive Women’s Under-19 World Cup title in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday. And dominate is what India did throughout the tournament, winning all their games and not letting any team score more against them than the 113 for 8 that England made in the semi-finals.India had chased in four of the six games before the final, and they won all those matches comfortably, never losing more than two wickets. After South Africa won the toss and chose to bat in the title bout, India just replicated the template that served them so well through the competition, their spinners playing a pivotal role in getting the opposition out for 82.Related

• G Trisha excels with bat and ball as India become back-to-back Under-19 champions

India then chased down the target in 11.2 overs, with G Trisha – who also returned figures of 3 for 15 with the ball – scoring an unbeaten 44.”We are definitely going to create this legacy of winning ICC trophies, winning a lot of trophies for India,” Prasad said at the post-match presentation ceremony.Prasad had to put behind her the disappointment of not making the squad for the previous Under-19 World Cup, which India won under the captaincy of Shafali Verma in 2023, but she’s soaking it all in now.”I think I’m feeling really happy that I am right here standing, making sure that India stays on top. And it’s obviously a special moment that we’re playing the World Cup and doing this for India,” she said.India lost the toss and were asked to bowl. Prasad said India drew from their experience bowling first in most of their matches in the competition.”I think all of us just tried to stay calm and down-to-earth and just stick to doing what our job is,” she said.G Trisha poses with her medal after taking India to the Under-19 World Cup glory•Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

“I think if we would have won the toss we would have definitely chosen batting but you know throughout the tournament we’ve been bowling well and we’ve been bowling first [more] so nevertheless we just wanted to go out there and show what we can do.”Trisha, who was named Player of the Match and Player of the Tournament, dedicated the latter award to her father, who was in the audience.”Because of him I started playing cricket. I don’t think without him I would have been here,” said Trisha, who was also part of the team in 2023.While she played in the middle order in 2023, Trisha was pushed up to open this time around, and she ended up topping the run charts with 309 runs from seven matches with an average of 77.25. No other batter reached the 200-run mark. Her strike rate of 147.14 was also the best in the tournament.Trisha, who said she idolises Mithali Raj, has been working on her power game in recent times and credited India’s batting coach Apoorva S Desaii for giving her role clarity before the competition.”So we’ve been working on [my power game] since a while. For this tournament our batting coach Apoorva sir he has kept telling ‘you are going to open the innings and make sure you’re ready for it’,” Trisha said.Apart from her heroics with the bat, Trisha also returned seven wickets from the six games she bowled in.Parunika Sisodia struck in her first over of the Under-19 Women’s T20 World Cup final•Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

India’s left-arm spin trio ‘like a family’

One of the major factors in India’s domination was their trio of left-arm spinners Vaishnavi Sharma, Aayushi Shukla and Parunika Sisodia, who were three of the four highest wicket-takers in the competition.While Vaishnavi topped the charts with 17 strikes, Shukla and Sisodia were not far behind with 14 and 10 wickets respectively.According to them, the three are close and have developed a great understanding between themselves.”I guess back in the room in the hotel, what all three we talk about is nothing related to our bowling,” Sisodia said after India’s win. “All our bowling just came and, you know, in the game coming on we just enjoyed ourselves.”We keep telling each other a little bit of, you know, what the batters are doing, helping each other [on the field].”At this point, I guess, we are just, you know, eye contacting and we are understanding each other now.”With all of them being left-arm spinners, is there competition or does this fact not affect them?”We are like the best friends,” Sisodia was quick to respond, with emphasis on the “best”. Vaishnavi, who was too overcome with emotion to speak a few minutes earlier was quick to interject: “We are like family actually. We all are family.”Asked about their plans for the future, Sisodia said: “I guess all of us… I mean, not just us [three] but the whole team, we all want to just go ahead and, you know, never look back from here.”Wicketkeeper and opener G Kamalini, who was animatedly photobombing the interview, then came in and summed up the feelings of the team in a line in Tamil: ” [We have lifted the World Cup].”

Pant could not keep wicket for the rest of the Lord’s Test after suffering an injury on the first day

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Jul-2025

Rishabh Pant suffered a finger injury on the first day of the Lord’s Test•Getty Images

Rishabh Pant “should be fine” in time for the fourth Test against England at Old Trafford from July 23 after scans revealed “no major injury” to the index finger of his left hand, according to India captain Shubman Gill.Pant is the second-highest run-scorer in the series, with 425 in six innings at an average of 70.83.He was struck on the index finger of his left hand while attempting to collect a delivery from Jasprit Bumrah down the leg side during the 34th over of England’s first innings in the Lord’s Test. He was in considerable pain and needed treatment from the physio that caused a long break in play. Though he finished that over, he could not continue keeping wicket, and was replaced behind the stumps by Dhruv Jurel for the rest of the Test.Related

• Gill 'extremely proud' of India's lower-order fight

Pant, however, came out to bat at No. 5 in both of India’s innings at Lord’s. He scored 74 off 112 balls in the first innings, and 9 off 12 in the second. However, there were moments during both innings where he was in discomfort due to the injury and had to take the injured bottom hand off the bat as he connected with the ball.This was most apparent during India’s chase of 193 on the final day, when Pant walked out to bat with India needing another 135 to win with six wickets in hand. He was not at ease facing the pace of Jofra Archer, frequently releasing his bottom hand from the bat handle.Pant became the first wicket to fall on day five when he lost his off stump to Archer while trying to defend, and India went on to fall short of the target by 22 runs to go 2-1 down in the five-Test series.It is unlikely that Pant will be allowed a keeping substitute for the same injury during the next Test at Old Trafford so he will need to be fully fit going into that fixture.

The opener will head to India with Australia A next month before a crucial month of Sheffield Shield cricket that will determine his short-term Test prospects

Andrew McGlashan19-Aug-20250:27

Konstas gone for duck as tough Caribbean tour ends

Sam Konstas is fully aware he faces a “massive” run of Sheffield Shield matches early in the season if he is to retain his Test place for the start of the Ashes but is focused on shutting out much of the talk and trusting his inner circle.Konstas endured a torrid series against West Indies where he made 50 runs in six innings albeit in challenging conditions where the top orders of both teams found life tough. They were his first Tests since bursting into the side against India last season, but he is now back in the pack as far as selection goes to face England in November.He has resumed training with New South Wales having taken a break after the tour and will return to playing on the four-day leg of the Australia A tour of India next month. That trip has a longer lens from the selectors – Australia have a five-Test tour in early 2027 – so while runs won’t hurt Konstas’ shorter-term ambitions, of most relevance will be what he’s able to do in the early rounds of the Shield in October.Related

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• Konstas, Peake, McSweeney named in Australia A squad for India tour

• Bailey declares Weatherald 'in the mix' for Ashes

• Webster happy to scrap for Ashes spot with Green's return to bowling on track

“It’s massive, it’s going to be a big four games and I expect that,” Konstas said on the day a new four-year deal with Sydney Thunder in the BBL was announced that will keep him at the club until 2029. “But for me, [it’s about] just being in the present moment, don’t get too fixated about the outcome and just be very process-driven in those games. Not getting too fazed about what other people say, and obviously have that inner circle that I trust.”For me it’s just trying to best prepare, and then obviously trusting what I think is right in that current moment,” Konstas added. “It was my first time playing in the West Indies, and first time facing those bowlers. They bowled well and hopefully I can build from that experience.”Adopting the right mindset, training hard, not leaving any regrets. For me, that’s the big thing, just the way I prepare, and especially with the people that I trust, having honest conversations with them when necessary and leaving it to that.”Jack Edwards, the New South Wales captain who will also be part of the Australia A tour, has been training alongside Konstas in recent weeks”He definitely doesn’t hold onto it [the tour] for too long,” Edwards told ESPNcricinfo. “It’s great to have him around. He’s working extremely hard at his game as he always does, hitting a mountain of balls…such a young man, he’s definitely going to have a long career for Australia.”Konstas spoke of leaning on Steven Smith and David Warner, his captain at Thunder, for advice. “I’m very lucky to be working with the best in the world,” he said.Picked for Australia after just 11 first-class matches, it’s been acknowledged by the coaching staff that Konstas has been doing a lot of his developing at the top level although there is a belief in the set-up that the setbacks in West Indies won’t do long-term harm.”I’m still learning about my game and finding what works in different conditions,” he said. “Understanding the situations, when to soak up pressure [and] when to attack the game.”That’s where Warner has been a valuable sounding board for him. “I just like his mindset, to be honest,” Konstas said. “He takes the game on and he’s very aggressive. He’s always trying to dictate terms in the way he likes to.”Still only 19 – he turns 20 early in October – Konstas is trying to keep a level head. “As an athlete, you’re going to go through failures and successes, but I tell you, build from those failures and become a better person and cricketer.”

Warriorz’s fielding lapses of three dropped chances and misfields in the last over cost them the game after Lanning smashed 69

Vishal Dikshit19-Feb-2025The Delhi Capitals middle order stepped up for the first time in this WPL and didn’t squander the blazing start provided by their prolific opening pair of Shafali Verma and Meg Lanning to consign UP Warriorz to their second straight loss. Capitals’ seven-wicket win ended the Vadodara leg of the tournament with the chasing team winning all six games, before the action moves to Bengaluru, and then Lucknow and Mumbai.It was not all smooth and easy for Capitals though. Once Lanning fell for 69, they needed a tricky 48 off 32 on a pitch that was keeping low. The ever-dependable Marizanne Kapp tilted the game in their favour with consecutive fours off Sophie Ecclestone when the equation read 31 off 17 and Annabel Sutherland all but sealed the chase in the last over – off which they needed 11 – by handing similar treatment to Grace Harris. This was also the highest total chased by Capitals in WPL.Related

• Warriorz's Athapaththu to leave WPL early to play for Sri Lanka

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Warriorz’s fielding lapses of three dropped chances and misfields in the last over cost them the game, after their own middle order was unable to capitalise on the rapid start given by Kiran Navgire’s 51 off 27.

Navgire’s big hits against the big names

Navgire put all the doubts around Warriorz’s inexperienced top order to bed by taking on the big names in Captilas’ attack. She got going from ball one, smacking Kapp for back-to-back fours with a pull and straight loft. In the next over she repeated the act by making room against Shikha Pandey’s inswingers with glorious drives. She upped the level further when she walloped Kapp and Jess Jonassen for two sixes and a one-bounce four all within the space of three balls to race to 35 off 13. With a straight six off Pandey at the start of the fifth over, Navgire brought up Warriorz’s fastest team fifty, off 25 balls, and then brought up her own fifty off 24 balls, the joint-fastest by a Warriorz batter.Kiran Navgire got UP Warriorz off to a flying start•WPL

Sutherland sends Warriorz ‘scrambling’

After starting this WPL with a three-for last week, Sutherland showed her bowling smarts again by sending down short balls with scrambled seams and the bigger boundary on the leg side. Both Vrinda Dinesh and Navgire couldn’t clear the rope and Warriorz went from 66 for 0 to 73 for 2.The Capitals spinners stepped up from the other end. Jonassen fired one outside off to have Tahlia McGrath stumped and Deepti Sharma suffered the same fate when she couldn’t connect against the drift and turn of offspinner Minnu Mani. In a matter of 23 balls, Warriotz had lost 4 for 16 that eventually cost them the match.

Henry shines on WPL debut

Warriorz were headed towards more misery when Harris miscued an offcutter for 12 and they were reeling at 118 for 5. But with five overs to go, it was WPL debutant Chinelle Henry who struck the big hits as Shweta Sehrawat also showed her hitting skills with 37 off 33. Henry, who had scored 61 in her last game at the same ground for West Indies, lifted Warriorz from 128 to 150 single-handedly by smashing Pandey all around the park for three sixes and a four in four balls for a 23-run 17th over. Capitals, however, bounced back to concede just 16 runs in the last three as Jonassen varied her pace and Arundhati Reddy and Kapp took the pace off.

Lanning and Shafali pepper the boundaries, again

That Lanning and Shafali brought up their second fifty stand in three games was nothing new in the WPL, but this time it was with Lanning looking far more confident. Following two scratchy innings, she led her team for nearly three-fourths of the chase with a solid 69 off 49 after Shafali’s 26 off 16 deflated UPW in the powerplay. Shafali punished Kranti Goud in the first over, Lanning dabbed Sophie Ecclestone for two fours in the second, they went after Rajeshwari Gayakwad and Goud together in the third and fifth, and with three fours off Henry’s two overs, Capitals had 59 in the powerplay and the batting pair had their tenth 50-plus opening stand in WPL, the most by a distance.Meg Lanning brought up a quick half-century•BCCI

Sutherland, Kapp see Capitals home after a stutter

Warriorz put down their first chance when Henry dropped Shafali on 25 at deep midwicket although it didn’t cost them much because the batter pulled again to Henry four balls later on 26. It became two wickets in five balls when Jemimah Rodrigues paddled to short fine leg for her third duck in WPL. Once the wickets slowed things down briefly, Lanning’s nifty footwork fetched her three fours in two overs to pull things back while a steady Sutherland kept going at run a ball.Once Ecclestone and Harris sent down two boundary-less overs to bring the equation from 57 off 42 to 47 off 30 along with the wicket of Lanning, Warriorz were clawing back in the game. But Eccelstone put down a sitter of Sutherland and Kapp reeled off boundaries with placement and power to bring Capitals back and she also got a life in the penultimate over.With 11 needed from six, Warriorz conceded two fours that could have been stopped in the outfield and McGrath failed to collect the ball at the bowler’s end from mid-on which could have led to a run-out but turned out to be the winning run.

India are looking to be well-prepared for the Champions Trophy, Asia Cup and T20 World Cup

Hemant Brar11-Oct-20242:39

Ten Doeschate: ‘We don’t give opportunities; the guys earn opportunities’

The Indian team is trying to “push the limits” of what they can do. According to assistant coach Ryan ten Doeschate, they are doing this in order to be well-prepared for the challenges in the next 18 months: the Champions Trophy, Asia Cup and T20 World Cup.With Rohit Sharma as captain and Rahul Dravid as coach, India had shed their safety-first approach with bat in limited-overs cricket. It paid dividends when they finished as the runners-up of the 2023 ODI World Cup and the winners of the 2024 T20 World Cup.Now Suryakumar Yadav has replaced Rohit as T20I captain and Gautam Gambhir has taken over as coach, but the template has remained the same. In the first T20I against Bangladesh in Gwalior, India chased down 128 in 11.5 overs. Then, batting first in Delhi, they found themselves on 41 for 3 inside the powerplay. But Nitish Kumar Reddy and Rinku Singh only momentarily took their foot off the pedal and powered India to 221 for 9.”Hundred per cent,” ten Doeschate said, when asked if playing fearless cricket was part of the team philosophy. “I think it has shown in the way we have played. The Test match in Kanpur is a great example.”Related

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In that second Test in Kanpur, rain and a wet outfield allowed only 35 overs across the first three days. But India’s attacking approach with the bat meant they won with more than one session to spare.”We are trying to push the limits of what we can do as a team,” ten Doeschate said. “We have obviously got the quality to do it. And then it’s about giving the players the belief to do it in a safe space, that if it’s not going to go right, it’s also okay. And even if you look back at the first two games, someone like Sanju [Samson] getting a quick start in the first game in Gwalior, it would have been easy for him to knock it around and just get a 50-60 not out. But you can see he was trying to push the boundary. He knows the state of the game, and the messaging has been pretty consistent with that.”We want the guys to expand their game. We want to move cricket forward, like it’s going with the times. And we want to be prepared for the big crunch moments that are coming up in the next 18 months.”Gautam Gambhir oversees India’s training session in Hyderabad•PTI

Another change since Gambhir became the coach has been the push to make as many players in the side bowl. In the second T20I, despite Hardik Pandya not rolling his arm over, India used seven bowlers, with each picking up at least one wicket.”You see the way the game is going, it’s very rare that all five bowlers, or even six bowlers, are going to go well on a given day,” ten Doeschate said. “So it’s nice to have options. Ideally, you want them to bowl a little bit more, but someone like Hardik not bowling in the last game, it’s just a testament to the depth of the bowling in the team.”India fielded the same XI in the first two T20Is. But now with the series sealed, they are likely to try their bench strength.”That was always the plan,” ten Doeschate said. “Obviously, there’s a nice depth in the squad – a lot of guys have the IPL experience. We are trying to expose as many guys as we can to international experience with what we have coming up. So someone like Harshit Rana, we are keen to give a game to. Obviously, Tilak [Varma] came into the squad a bit later. Jitesh [Sharma] is there as well. We want to give Sanju another chance. So there are options.”The third and final T20I will be played in Hyderabad, where the average run rate in IPL 2024 was 10.54. But ten Doeschate said India would not blindly trust the data.”Certainly the data and the evidence is around that [a high-scoring game]. But a little bit like when we got to Delhi the other day, you don’t want to read too much into the data. We probably feel that those first three wickets we lost was maybe because of going a little too hard. The wicket was a little bit sticky.”So we will have a look at this wicket. We are aware of the high-scoring nature of this pitch during the IPL but also we are five months away from the IPL now. So conditions could change as well. Fingers crossed, it’s a high-scoring game and a quality game.”

Along with 90s from Shan Masood and Ben Cox, Foxes dominate Kent attack

ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay16-Sep-2025Kent 17 for 0 trail Leicestershire 459 for 7 dec (Patel 114, Cox 93, Masood 90, Hill 54) by 442 runsA fine century from Rishi Patel, along with 90s from Shan Masood and Ben Cox, saw Leicestershire secure maximum batting bonus points and left them the verge of securing the Division Two title as they dominated a callow Kent attack after being put into bat at the UptonSteel County Ground.Beginning the match 25 points clear of second-placed Glamorgan, the Foxes could not have hoped for a better second day of this Rothesay County Championship match after the first was entirely lost to the weather.It made for a chastening first-class debut for 19-year-old all-rounder Corey Flintoff – one of a remarkable five teenagers in the Kent side – who, with father Andrew watching, bowled 15 wicket-less overs for 91 runs, though he did take a catch.Kent openers Harry Finch and Ben Dawkins survived a difficult nine overs before the light closed in.After the loss of the entire first day to the strong winds that made handling the covers too dangerous to undertake, it was a relief to see the ground ready for play from the start.Flintoff, the second son of former England allrounder Andrew to be embarking on a career as a professional cricketer, following in the footsteps of brother Rocky, took his place in what must surely have been the youngest slip cordon ever formed in county cricket, all three slips and gully being in their teens.They were in the game early, when Jaydn Denly at second slip dropped a straightforward chance given by Sol Budinger off the bowling of Joey Evison. To make matters worse, Denly left the field with illness soon afterwards, while Evison’s feelings will not have improved when Budinger casually swung an in-swinger over the midwicket boundary for six. The Kent allrounder had his revenge soon afterwards however, when Budinger again edged to second slip and this time Flintoff held on.Patel, however, looked in good touch from the start. The 27-year-old has struggled for consistency this season after missing the early weeks with a thumb injury, but has recently shown signs of finding the form which saw him called into an England Lions training camp, and he took full toll on the regular loose deliveries from the visiting attack.There were plenty of testing balls too, and George Garrett produced a beauty to square up and bowl Ian Holland, but a score of 151 for 2 off 30 overs at lunch told its own story. Having hit ten boundaries in going to his half-century, Patel hit another ten in going to three figures, his second Championship century of the season, shortly after lunch.Kent were already looking down the barrel, but Patel played too soon at an Ekansh Singh delivery and got a leading edge that looped to mid-on, a maiden first-class wicket for the 19-year-old, and Lewis Hill, having registered his seventh half-century of the season, slashed a wide short ball from Michael Cohen straight to point.When Steve Eskinazi, who never settled, went leg before to Evison, Leicestershire were in danger of wasting their flying start, but the elegant Masood was calmness personified, and he found lively support from Cox. Together they added 161 for the sixth wicket and both seemed certain to reach three figures, but Garrett, bowling with the new ball, pushed one across Masood to find an edge which carried to slip before Grant Stewart took a fine leaping catch at mid-on to dismiss Cox off the bowling of Evison.