Friday, December 4th, 2015

Whiteley Hits Only Six As England Lions Earn Narrow Warm-Up Win

Whiteley Hits Only Six As England Lions Earn Narrow Warm-Up Win

Worcestershire all-rounder Ross Whiteley was part of the England Lions side which gained a two wicket win over a United Arab Emirates X1 in Dubai.

Whiteley made 12 off nine balls and hit the only six of the game before he was dismissed by Maqsood Zaheer.

County team-mateJoe Clarke, the youngest member of the squad at 19, was not part of the side for this warm-up match before the five T20s against Pakistan A from December 7 to 16.

It was a first appearance at this level for Whiteley although he had previously represented England in the Hong Kong Sixes three years ago.

Ben Foakes steered England Lions to the brink of a tense win against the UAE although it needed a Jake Ball boundary off the last ball to seal it.

Foakes, who had missed the previous two warm-up games because of injury, showed patience and intelligence in making 49, from 48 balls and including two boundaries, as the Lions made hard work of chasing a target of 132 for six.

The Surrey wicketkeeper-batsman, who had earlier claimed an efficient stumping off Liam Dawson, came in with the Lions tottering at 25 for three, after a golden duck for captain James Vince and an unfortunate run out for Sam Billings.

He found solid support from Dawson, and Whiteley hit the only six of the innings, but neither could stay for the duration.

Fortunately Foakes kept his cool in the mid-afternoon heat and with five runs needed from the last over, he improvised a boundary off the first ball to take the Lions to the brink of victory.

Foakes was furious with himself when he holed out to long-on two balls later, and the tension built as Jamie Overton missed the fourth ball of the over, and the UAE wicketkeeper needed lengthy treatment.

Overton hit a single to midwicket to bring the scores level with one ball remaining, and Ball belted it over mid-off to seal the Lions win.

Earlier, Ball and Overton shared the bowling honours with two wickets each as the Lions restricted the UAE XI to 132 for six.

Ball struck in his first over and returned to bamboozle Mohd Usman with a slower ball, taking a simple return catch and ending with 2-22 from his four overs.

Overton, who took 3-13 in the first of the three Lions warm-up matches last week, had Rameez Shahzad gloving a hook early on, and then dismissed the UAE’s batting mainstay Ghulam Shabbir for an excellent 56, caught at long-on by Billings.

Reece Topley, one of four players in this Lions team who impressed for the senior England side in their recent Twenty20 triumph against Pakistan, took the new ball and made the first breakthrough with his fourth ball, and returned to bowl an especially impressive 16th over.

Captain Vince shared the remaining eight overs between three spinners with Stephen Parry the most economical (3-0-18-0), and Dawson who provoked the stumping chance for Foakes – who was handed the wicketkeeping gloves for the first time on the tour, with Billings playing as a specialist batsman.

England Lions:

J M Vince

D J Bell-Drummond

T. Westley

S W Billings

B.T. Foakes

L A Dawson

R A Whiteley

J Overton

S D Parry

J. Ball

R J W Topley