England delay team reveal for latest T20 with weather forcing training indoors
England’s preparations for a hot, dry T20 World Cup in India in February brought them on Wednesday to a cool, drizzly Auckland, where they were forced to conduct the final training session before their third game against New Zealand indoors.It is not always obvious what purpose these bilateral series serve, what useful lessons could possibly be being learned – but on this occasion, for at least one of the players, that is not an issue.Tom Banton says he is “still learning now”, and if it is the kind of line regularly trotted out even by players who have long since scaled the pinnacle of their sport in his case it is undeniably true.After forging his reputation as a top-order batter, mostly as an opener, Banton suddenly finds himself in a completely unfamiliar role, coming in at five or six.“There weren’t really too many conversations,” he said.
“I just got brought back into the team and told: ‘You’re going to bat in the middle order now.’”Before his recall in June 87% of Banton’s 163 senior T20 innings (including games in the Hundred) had been as an opener, another 8% at No 3 and the remaining handful – but for seven balls at No 7 in a T20 Blast game eight years ago – at No 4.If England intend to keep him in this new position he needs every possible opportunity to become accustomed to it, and he has already worked out one thing: “Batting in the middle order,” he surmised, “is a lot harder than opening.”Banton said that “there’s going to be times where it comes off and it looks great and other times where it doesn’t”, and the first two games of the winter in New Zealand have seen one of each.In the first he lasted nine balls and scored nine runs before holing out to long-on; in the second he faced 12 deliveries, scored 29, and ended the innings unbeaten.
This tour has seen Banton return to the country in which he made his international debut in November 2019.Since then he drifted back out of the side, made a brief return in 2022 and then spent more than three years in the wilderness before coming back for Harry Brook’s first T20 as England captain.“On the flight over, it was weird,” he said.“It was six years ago now when I made my debut.It feels like a lot has happened in that time.
I’ve learned a lot about myself,The few years after I got dropped from England was a tough time for me,I had a two- to three-year period where I was working myself out,”And now he has been given something new to work out,Banton is grateful to have been given another chance, and also for Brendon McCullum’s ability to put him at ease while he works out how best to grasp it.
“Baz came up to me before [Monday’s second T20] and said: ‘Go out and express yourself.’ It’s nice to have that freedom,” Banton said.“I know it’s only a small thing someone says, but it gives me the backing that if it doesn’t come off, it’s not the end of the world.It’s something so small but for me it’s: ‘OK, I’ve got the backing from the head coach and I can go out and do it.’”After playing the first two games of the series at Christchurch’s Hagley Park, a ground with unusually long boundaries, England complete it on Thursday at Eden Park, a dual-purpose rugby and cricket ground where the straight boundary at 55m is among the shortest in the world.
With uncertain weather and an unfamiliar venue they have abandoned their recent habit of announcing their team two days in advance while they work out if their ideal XI here will be the same as the one that started both previous games.Sign up to The SpinSubscribe to our cricket newsletter for our writers' thoughts on the biggest stories and a review of the week’s actionafter newsletter promotionOn Friday they move to Mount Maunganui and shift attention to ODIs, with a slightly amended squad: Jordan Cox, Zak Crawley and Phil Salt drop out, while Jofra Archer, Ben Duckett, Joe Root and Jamie Smith come in.Three of those players arrived in Auckland on Wednesday but the scheduling of Archer’s Ashes preparations means he will follow two days later, travelling with Mark Wood and Josh Tongue, two seamers who are also building towards the Tests in Australia but are not in the white-ball squad.As a result Archer will miss the opening game at Bay Oval, the ground where he was racially abused on his only previous appearance in 2019.
UK inflation unexpectedly remains at 3.8% for third month in a row
UK inflation was unchanged last month at 3.8%, confounding expectations of a rise, in welcome news for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as she plans for her crucial budget next month.The Office for National Statistics said that inflation measured on the consumer prices index remained at the same level in September as in August and July.City expectations had pointed to a 4% reading but the ONS said upward pressure from transport prices was offset by slightly cheaper food and a slowdown in inflation for “recreation and culture”, including live music tickets.The September reading raised hopes that the Bank of England could cut interest rates sooner than previously expected, with markets moving their bets for the first full quarter-point reduction from March to February next year
UK inflation stays at 3.8% as food price rises slow for first time since March – as it happened
Our top story: UK inflation was unchanged last month at 3.8%, confounding expectations of a rise, in welcome news for the chancellor, Rachel Reeves, as she plans for her crucial budget next month.The Office for National Statistics (ONS) said that inflation measured on the consumer prices index remained at the same level in September as in August and July.City expectations had pointed to a 4% reading but the ONS said upward pressure from transport prices was offset by cheaper food and a slowdown in inflation for “recreation and culture”, including live music tickets.It was the 12th month in a row CPI remained above the government’s 2% target, however
Apple and Google face enforced changes over UK mobile phone dominance
Google and Apple face enforced changes to how they operate their mobile phone platforms, after the UK’s competition watchdog ruled the companies require tougher regulatory oversight.The Competition and Markets Authority has conferred “strategic market status” (SMS) on the tech firms after investigating their mobile operating systems, app stores and browsers. It means Apple and Google will be subjected to tailormade guidelines to regulate their behaviour in the mobile market.The CMA said the two companies have “substantial, entrenched” market power, with UK mobile phone owners using either Google or Apple’s platforms and unlikely to switch between them. The regulator flagged the importance of their platforms to the UK economy and said they could be a bottleneck for businesses
Google hails breakthrough as quantum computer surpasses ability of supercomputers
Google has claimed a breakthrough in quantum computing after developing an algorithm that performed a task beyond the capabilities of conventional computers.The algorithm, a set of instructions guiding the operation of a quantum computer, was able to compute the structure of a molecule – which paves the way for major discoveries in areas such as medicine and materials science.Google acknowledged, however, that real-world use of quantum computers remained years away.“This is the first time in history that any quantum computer has successfully run a verifiable algorithm that surpasses the ability of supercomputers,” Google said in a blogpost. “This repeatable, beyond-classical computation is the basis for scalable verification, bringing quantum computers closer to becoming tools for practical applications
Australia bring back bad memories for England at Women’s World Cup
Ever get the feeling of deja vu? In Indore on Wednesday, Australia took up where they had left off at the MCG in January: Alana King bowled unplayable balls, Annabel Sutherland and Ash Gardner piled on the runs, and one side left the other for dust. It is the World Cup instead of the Ashes, but the result – a six-wicket win for Australia, with 57 balls to spare – was horribly familiar.Sutherland’s contribution to this World Cup had been limited to merely being the leading wicket-taker. On Wednesday, she again showcased her variations, getting a hint of away movement to clip the top of Amy Jones’s off stump, before removing Tammy Beaumont and Emma Lamb with her slower ball. Her three for 60, and a 10-over spell from King that went for 20, ensured that England put just 244 on the board
The forgotten story of the US soldiers who integrated baseball before Jackie Robinson
Far from the diamonds of America, a little-known chapter of the journey toward integrating baseball was taking place in war-ravaged Europe just over 80 years ago.It took place at a tournament held to entertain soldiers in the months after the end of the second world war. The team who won the GI World Series in September 1945 were unlike any of the other competitors: they had an integrated roster, including two stars from the Negro Leagues: Willard Brown and Leon Day.“They are two legendary players who have not gotten their just due,” says Bob Kendrick, president of the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum. “People just don’t know about the team that won a GI championship
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