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There must be something special about a 23-year-old bowler with limited experience if he is asked to bowl the Super Over in a high-stakes IPL game. Dinesh Karthik turned to Prasidh Krishna in Kolkata Knight Riders’ match against Delhi Capitals, and the paceman conceded just ten runs, with just the one four, and sent back Shreyas Iyer. Knight Riders failed to top the mark, but that’s another matter. Prasidh had made a mark in just his tenth IPL appearance.”Initially I was very happy, since the team trusted me to do the job. The result depended on that one over, so I was very happy, I enjoy taking responsibility for the team,” Prasidh, in Bengaluru for Knight Riders’ next game, said. “It was a task given (to me). I think I did pretty well. We ended up on the losing side, but we still have lots of positives to take.”Knight Riders had lost the services of local pacemen Kamlesh Nagarkoti and Shivam Mavi to injuries well before the tournament began, and South Africa’s Anrich Nortje also pulled out because of a shoulder injury closer to the start of the action. That left the pace resources in the ranks looking rather thin, and though a few replacements have come in, Prasidh has got a start in all three games his team has played so far, and been impressive.As the numbers below suggest, he is at his most economical in the middle phase of games in the IPL, but at his best in terms of wicket-taking ability at the close. And, really, 9.58 isn’t terribly bad considering the way most end overs go in T20 games.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

“They are looking at me to bowl anywhere in the game, because I do bowl (with) the new ball, I do bowl in the middle overs, I do bowl in the death. So yeah, they are depending on me to deliver,” he said.”It feels really nice as a bowler, as a youngster in the team, when you know you have your captain, your team, your coaching staff, everyone trusts in you – what else can you ask for? It’s only going up from there.”This is the era of variations, as many of them as possible, to be successful in the shortest format of the game. As far as Prasidh is concerned, though, it’s more important to stick to the plans. “Consistency is the best weapon any bowler can add to his armoury,” he said. “That’s one thing I have really worked on with Omkar Salvi (bowling coach), Abhishek Nayar (mentor), and all of them. Apart from that, I do work on the variations, I do bowl the slower one, the yorker, be it whatever it is. But it’s been more towards the consistency side, whatever I have been doing.”A bit of speed might be the next thing on the agenda: “A yorker at 130 and a yorker at 140-145 are two completely different parameters. So yeah, I would like to get speed as an aspect because that is something not everyone can do. So when I’m able to do it, I want to do it consistently.”In the Super Over against Delhi Capitals, Prasidh bowled two balls to Iyer and four to Rishabh Pant. Tough opponents of course – “I tried to keep it away from their hitting zone” – but it doesn’t compare to the sort of fear Andre Russell instills; Prasidh hasn’t had a chance to bowl much to Russell in the nets, but has got a taste of the Dre Russ treatment.”As bowlers in KKR, when we are bowling to him, we know we are bowling to the best batsman in the world when it comes to T20, at least in the hitting ability that he has. To be able to bowl to him every day, you still have to learn for yourself,” Prasidh said. “Any wrong ball, you’re going to go for a six. So that does really help us when we’re bowling against someone else.”In one of the practice games I played, I did get hit for a couple of sixes. Other than that, I don’t really get to bowl much to him in the nets, because it’s usually him hitting it out of the park and I do the initial part of the nets and then he usually bats at the last. So by then I am almost done bowling. It’s been challenging.”

Sunrisers Hyderabad played almost the perfect experience game after losing the toss, but made one big mistake in the 18th over to give Delhi Capitals their first win in the 12-year history of IPL playoffs. Capitals played some sublime cricket at times, but nearly bottled it in the end after Rishabh Pant took 22 off the 18th over to turn it into what should have been a cakewalk.On a slow pitch that was described as “tacky” by both captains, Sunrisers were disadvantaged by having to bat first, but their experience showed in how they found their way to what they thought was a winning total of 162. It looked like that for a major part of the first 17 overs of their defence, but Basil Thampi bowling ahead of in-form Khaleel Ahmed proved to be the gamebreaker.Guptill goes big in PowerplaySunrisers knew this pitch would be difficult to score on in the middle overs so Martin Guptill had the license to play big shots while the ball was new. He tucked into Trent Boult, whom he was facing for the first time in a competitive T20 match, after having dismissed Ishant Sharma from his presence. Ishant bowled a pretty good sixth over – the most difficult over statistically – but was let down by some nervous fielding.Sunrisers made their way to 54 for 1 in the Powerplay, but Guptill kept on with his aggressive intent. He strikes at over 8.5 an over against legspin in all T20 and at above 9 an over in the IPL, but when he went after Amit Mishra in the seventh over, the lack of bounce and pace meant he only managed to hit the shot off the toe end, offering a simple catch to deep square midwicket. Sunrisers 56 for 1 in the seventh over.The spin chokeAxar Patel and Mishra against a predominantly right-hand batting unit on a turning track was always going to be a difficult proposition. Had Manish Pandey and Kane Williamson tried anything too fancy, there was a very good chance Sunrisers might have lost the game in this spell. They chose to respect the bowlers and wait for the quicker ones to come back. Mishra, second-best among all bowlers when it comes to balls per boundary this season, bowled his four overs without conceding a single four or six. The middle overs produced just two boundaries, but Sunrisers did well to lose just one wicket in this period. Sunrisers 104 for 3 in 15 overs.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

The final kickNow Sunrisers finally got pace on ball. Capitals had in their ranks Ishant and Boult, whose economy rates at the death are among the five worst of the bowlers who’ve bowled more than 40 overs in this phase in the IPL. Ishant went for 11, Boult for 14, and almost everybody in the lower middle order played a role in taking Sunrisers to 162. It was a good score on a low pitch, especially if there was no dew and if Sunrisers could limit the damage in the Powerplay.Shaw steals PowerplayPrithvi Shaw has been dismissed 10 times inside the Powerplay this season, the highest for any batsman, but there is a good reason for it: he has stuck to his role selflessly. Shikhar Dhawan is the one to bat through, Shaw the one to create the impact in the Powerplay. And he created some impact in this Powerplay by taking 39 off 24 balls. This involved dismantling Bhuvneshwar Kumar and hitting three fours off a Khaleel over.Sunrisers were forced to bowl Rashid inside the Powerplay; his excellent sixth over went for just six, but Capitals had scored 55 in the first six.Sunrisers claw backThe towels were out – although they weren’t unduly in use – and the pitch seemed to have quickened up, but Sunrisers managed to stay in the hunt. Deepak Hooda got an over to produce the bonus wicket of Dhawan. Sunrisers now didn’t go looking for wickets. They tried to take the game deep, waiting for Capitals’ inexperience to show up. It turned up in the 11th over when both Shreyas Iyer and Shaw – 56 out of the 87 scored till then – fell in the same Khaleel over.The Rashid gambitWilliamson was in no mood to sit back now. He had new batsmen at the wicket, and he went all out with Rashid. Even though his third over didn’t bring a wicket, Williamson took the bold call to finish his quota off with five overs to spare. Rashid repaid the faith, bowling a double-wicket maiden, taking out Colin Munro and Axar Patel. With 52 required off the last five and a lot of monsters of botched-up chases in their closet, Capitals were somewhat the underdogs now.Thampi ahead of KhaleelTwo more good overs followed. Now it was 34 off three overs. Khaleel had two left, Bhuvneshwar one. It would have made sense to bowl them, but Williamson took the gamble of going with Thampi. Not only was the choice of the bowler wrong, he also executed poorly. He bowled length from round the wicket. Before this innings, Pant had hit 13 sixes off pace this IPL, all over the leg side. It would have made sense to bowl over the wicket and angle it away from his arc; this played right into Pant’s hand. It was now down to 12 off 12 after the carnage in this over.Never straightforward with CapitalsNow Capitals began to mess up. First Pant got out trying to finish it with a six, leaving his side five to win off seven. Then some nervous swings and one obstruct-the-field later, it was all twos. Two balls, two runs required, two wickets in hand. Keemo Paul, though, managed to hit the fifth ball wide enough of deep midwicket to take Capitals through to the second Qualifier against Chennai Super Kings. The animated celebration of Ricky Ponting, who has won just about everything there is to win in cricket, showed how much it meant to them.

Glamorgan reached 167 for 5 on a rain-affected first day of their Specsavers Championship match at the St Helen’s ground in Swansea. Four batsmen were dismissed between 28 and 37 as a day that started late was ended by bad light 24.3 overs before the scheduled close.Derbyshire’s seamers kept a tight rein and made the batsmen work hard for their runs, Marnus Labuschagne the only man to prosper while hitting six fours and a six in 37 from 36 balls.There was no play before lunch and following an uncontested toss Tony Palladino struck with the fourth ball of the innings when he had Nick Selman leg before – the batsman attempting to turn a straight ball to leg.Labuschagne and Charlie Hemphrey then shared a partnership of 54 for the second wicket, with Labuschagne the dominant partner. The Australia Test batsman scored freely and it came as something of a surprise when he edged a catch to slip in Luis Reece’s opening over.Hemphrey played a more patient innings, taking 74 balls to score 32, before he was also trapped leg before by Palladino, who bowled a steady second spell on a pitch where was enough encouragement for the five Derbyshire seamers.Glamorgan’s acting captain David Lloyd, who has been short of runs recently, struck some early boundaries, and started to get into his stride when he drove Logan van Beek to cover, where Tom Lace did well to hold on to a low catch.After his career-best 229 against Northants last week, Billy Root struck some early boundaries, but after scoring 28, sliced a catch to slip, where Wayne Madsen, in the freezing conditions, held on to a sharp catch.Owen Morgan, who has deserved his chance in his first Championship game of the season after some impressive performances for the 2nd XI, was undefeated on 28 with Dan Douthwaite on 5 when the umpires mercifully ended play on a day more suited to November than early June.”We would have taken that score after the uncontested toss,” Lloyd said at the close. “It was quite tricky at times and although most of the batsmen got into the thirties, no one managed to kick on. You never felt in, although they bowled well throughout. It is up to us to kick on in the morning and build on the overnight score.”

The World Cup is only four games into its first weekend (it will be five after Sunday) but 300 has been crossed only once, and in the other seven innings, the highest total so far has been 209. In his post-match conference in Cardiff, Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne’s assessment was far from positive, saying “everyone is here to watch some entertainment, see a good match, a good, high-scoring match.”The World Cup 2019 venue curators may be going into frantic “course correction” in the hunt for a high-scoring close finish to give the event a spark, but the one team that is not surprised at how things have panned out is New Zealand.For captain Kane Williamson, the cards of the competition were laid out well before his team’s opening fixture, in the warm-up games. Before the match against Sri Lanka, Williamson had said, “We do know here, on some grounds that are smaller, have flat surfaces, that perhaps there will be some much higher scoring. We saw that in Bristol and also saw it at The Oval. It was quite a different situation. In some ways, we know that not every game is gonna be a 350 score, and we saw that in two warm-up games we played. One was; one wasn’t.”He underlined the four venues so far in an early English summer had established one fact: the totals and matches at the World Cup will not be the run-fests being expected and, therefore, “there won’t be one way to play.” Williamson said, “I think there has been a lot of talk about really high scores, but I think there will be a number of games where that isn’t the case and it will require adjustment… So there won’t be one way to play but, I guess, it’s just being smart with how we look to operate. For us as a team, that’s important.”By the end of Sunday, nine teams, barring India, will be a game into the competition, and setting out a pattern may be too early in the World Cup. Williamson, however, underscored that it is important for teams to be “aware”. He was asked whether New Zealand would, like South Africa did against England, open with a spinner – a move trademarked by New Zealand themselves in the 1992 World Cup.”You’ve got your five or six bowlers and they’re all options,” Williamson said in response. “I think it’s just important to address the surface, the opposition, and try and come up with the best plan… Naturally when you go through the tournament, you play one country and you might have two or three days, play another country on another surface, and you’re trying to, I guess, stay up-to-date with the different plans that you’re adjusting with the different opposition.”For his team, and it would apply to every other side in the competition regardless of skill levels or betting odds, adjusting to oppositions and conditions would be key as it could offer tactical solutions. “Whether it’s guys having to push a bit harder on a particular surface on a given day, then that may be what’s required,” Williamson said. “Equally, it may not be the case, and it’s about guys adjusting to perhaps what one-day cricket used to look a little bit more like where the scores are a little bit lower and much more scrappy-type mentality.”In the first half of the summer, ODI cricket does not seem to be so different from Test-match cricket in England, then?

England have handed Lions call-ups to Dom Sibley and Zak Crawley, two young openers who could come into Ashes contention, for next week’s four-day match against Australia A at Canterbury.Sibley, of Warwickshire, is currently the leading run-scorer in Division One of the County Championship, with 922 at 70.92, while Kent’s Crawley is fourth with 639 at 42.60. Both are set to make debuts for the Lions, alongside Gloucestershire batsman James Bracey and Sussex seamer Ollie Robinson, who are included in a provisional XI.There has been much uncertainty around England’s Test top three, following the retirement of Alastair Cook and the absence of a regular No. 3. Andy Flower, the Lions head coach, suggested that the players selected would be “looking to stake a claim” for the Ashes, with Sibley perhaps the leading candidate after a stellar run of form.Sibley helped Warwickshire win promotion last season and started 2019 by extending a sequence of hundreds to six in successive first-class matches. This week he compiled a career-best 244 against Kent at Canterbury, overhauling the 242 not out he made as a teenager at Surrey in 2013 (making him the youngest double-centurion in Championship history).”We’re really looking forward to a great challenge against a very experienced Australia A side, some of whom will be looking to stake a claim for Ashes selection,” Flower said. “We’ve got a very good squad of players travelling with us to Canterbury; one that’s more than capable of delivering a positive result.”Lions selection is always tricky. We’ve got an eye on the England team’s short-term needs ahead of a busy winter schedule, but we’re looking at some medium- and long-term prospects as well. We also need to respect the counties’ needs during this busy time in the domestic season.”While some players will be playing at this level for the first time, there is plenty of experience in our squad too. This will be a great learning opportunity for all these players and a chance to test themselves against a strong opposition.”There is England experience in the side, with wicketkeeper Ben Foakes, who played five of six Tests over the winter, batsman Ben Duckett and spinner Jack Leach among those previously capped. Somerset’s Lewis Gregory, who is the leading pace bowler in the Championship with 44 wickets at 12.93, won an England call-up in 2015 but has yet to feature at international level.Also included are Essex seamer Jamie Porter, who was close to a Test cap last summer; Lancashire’s rapid young faster bowler Saqib Mahmood; and Hampshire batsman Sam Northeast, who will be a contender to captain the side.England Lions squad: James Bracey, Zak Crawley, Ben Duckett, Ben Foakes, Lewis Gregory, Jack Leach, Saqib Mahmood, Sam Northeast, Jamie Porter, Ollie Robinson, Dom Sibley

Worcestershire recovered from early strife with the ball before Riki Wessels mixed power with a touch of invention in a superb 91 as Yorkshire, defending 178, were ultimately brushed aside by five wickets with 15 balls to spare at Emerald Headingley.The Vikings lost their third game in six and will rue not making the most of being 104 without loss in the 12th over.Their 177 for 7 looked competitive, but they should have been closer to 200 after openers Adam Lyth and Tom Kohler-Cadmore laid the platform with a century partnership having elected to bat.In reply, Rapids opener Wessels made the chase towards a fourth win from six North Group games look a routine one with 10 fours and five sixes in 51 balls.Lyth top-scored and hit four sixes in 48 balls, sharing 104 for the first wicket with ex-Worcestershire player Kohler-Cadmore, who hit two sixes.They shared their second century opening stand of this season’s Blast and took the visitors’ seamers to task on an excellent Headingley surface.Lyth hit successive sixes off Wayne Parnell and Pat Brown in the second and fourth overs en route to a 32-ball fifty. He was particularly strong square on both sides of the wicket, while Kohler-Cadmore was more measured, hitting nicely on the up down the ground and over cover.But they were two of seven wickets to fall inside the last nine overs of an innings which fell away to devastating effect.Both fell caught at deep mid-wicket off the off-spin of George Rhodes. That Rhodes – who finished with 2 for 12 – only bowled two overs was a surprise, especially with none of Worcester’s five seamers going at less than eight an over. They were the only two overs of spin in the innings.That said, their seamers did hit back with effect. Dillon Pennington removed Harry Brook and David Willey in the 16th over, leaving the score at 140 for four, just when they were looking to launch. And Brown also struck twice at the death.Worcestershire made a bright start to their chase as Wessels took the lead role.When Martin Guptill top-edged a short ball from Duanne Olivier to short fine leg, they were 28 for 1 in the fourth over, and well on the way to a powerplay score of 47 for one after six overs. Wessels had 26 of them.But in the next over, bowled by returning Vikings captain Steve Patterson after a five-game rest, Wessels launched sixes over long-off and long-leg as 20 runs came off it.Wessels reached his second fifty of this season’s Blast off 32 balls, but not before he lost Callum Ferguson caught at backward point off Lyth’s off-spin as the score fell to 93 for two in the 10th.When he fell in the 15th over, caught at long-on off Dom Bess’ off-spin, the damage had been done with the score at 152 for 3and only 26 more needed.Olivier and David Willey claimed the consolatory wickets of Parnell (27) and Ross Whiteley late on, but it proved too little, too late, as Worcestershire stayed second in the North Group, still just a point behind Lancashire.

Nick Webb has emerged as the frontrunner to take over from Shankar Basu as India’s strength and conditioning coach. Luke Woodhouse and S Rajnikanth are the other two shortlisted by a BCCI panel comprising the senior selection committee and fitness trainer and former Bengal batsman Ranadeep Moitra.The shortlists were made after a total of 12 candidates were put through theory and practical assessments – the latter at the National Cricket Academy (NCA) in Bengaluru over the weekend. From 12, the number came down to five, before the final three were named, Webb on top followed by Woodhouse and Rajnikanth. A final decision will be taken by Rahul Johri, the BCCI chief executive.”We had 12 names to look at, five of them were foreigners, and then we brought the list down to five people,” Moitra told ESPNcricinfo of the screening process. “We had discussed the science and theory part of it earlier, and then, once we met at the NCA, we had a more practical test, with some of the junior cricketers there. At the end of it, we decided on the top three.”Webb’s prior experience and him being “sensitive to the needs of the subcontinent” went in his favour, Moitra explained. He has previously worked with the New Zealand women’s team and domestic side Central Districts. Prior to his involvement in cricket, he had held similar positions with Warriors, the Auckland-based rugby league outfit.”See, all of them have experience, and all of them have their plus points. All of them, obviously, were strong contenders,” said Moitra, who turned to fitness and conditioning after his cricket career was cut short by injury, even working as assistant to Gregory Allen King with the Indian team in 2004, apart from being involved with football and golf.”Some of them came with experience of working with international cricket teams. But we felt Nick was more sensitive to the needs of the subcontinent. Not that the others were not, but we felt Nick was firm but easy-going, more open, not too rigid.”Woodhouse is currently the national lead for strength and conditioning for the England women’s rugby team, while Rajnikanth is contracted with Delhi Capitals in the IPL.The BCCI was forced to look for new candidates after Basu decided against a contract extension following a four-year stint with the Indian team. The 2019 World Cup was his last assignment.

Nottinghamshire coach Peter Moores said there was “nothing you can do” to explain his side’s semi-final defeat against Worcestershire, which saw his team score nine runs for the loss of three wickets in the final 12 balls and thus fall one short of a tie that would have been enough for them.”It’s quite difficult to explain,” Moores said. “It’s as gutting a loss as I can remember. It’s a tough one because we got ourselves in a position where we felt we couldn’t lose and then we did.”It looked like an easy finish and professional players often make it look very easy. But in sport you never know until you get over the line. We did a lot of things right and then – give them credit – they produced a couple of very good stops in the last two overs.””There is nothing you can do to explain it. That’s sport and that’s why people come and watch it.Nottinghamshire needed six off the last over, and one off the last ball, but Ben Duckett swung-and-missed at Wayne Parnell’s length ball with wicket-keeper Ben Cox stood up to the stumps to send Worcestershire through to a second final in as many years.”Ben’s distraught in there and you just have to take it,” said Moores. “When Dan [Christian] hit that six, it felt like that was the game. But you’re never over the line until you’re over the line.”I haven’t said anything to the players. You can imagine what the dressing room’s like. When you lose a game at Finals Day because you looked like you were going to lose, that’s tough. When you lose a game that you never expected to lose all the way through it, that’s a big thing to take in that moment. But it’s a fair scrap and they got one more run than us.Moores suggested that his side could use the defeat as motivation in future years.”I can’t remember a game like that if I’m honest,” he said. “No one comes here and has a great day unless they walk away with the trophy.”The lads put their heart and soul into the game. Our fans are very good and they’ve had some tough days to take this year. If we’d won the trophy today, we’d have had the most trophies of any side over the last ten years.”The tough days make the good ones taste that little bit sweeter.”

Durham 131 and 212 for 8 (Eckersley 54*, Hutton 4-54) trail Northamptonshire 217 and 315 (Proctor 86*, Levi 60, Rossington 52) by 189 runsWhen Durham were relegated by the ECB as part of the financial rescue in 2016, figures at the club predicted a five-year journey back to the first division. On another warm, cosy day at Wantage Road they all but surrendered the possibility of making it in three to a Northamptonshire side whose own promotion may be confirmed as early as tomorrow.One by one, the challengers are thinning out. As Durham slid to near defeat, so the push from Sussex expired via an unexpected loss to Derbyshire. If Northants complete victory and Glamorgan fail to convert their advantage against Leicestershire, then Northants will go up with a game to spare. Should Glamorgan win then Northants will still need only four points against Gloucestershire next week.It would be an exaggeration to say that they are dominating this match, but neither have they been behind since the half-hour or so of carnage from Adam Rossington on the first day. With Luke Procter to the fore, they added 80 second-innings runs to their overnight 235 for 6 to set a target of 402 and once again Durham’s top order collapsed to leave the result an apparent formality.Durham can claim to be taking small steps forward, with five wins against four last season and a tally of 150 points, 20 up on 2018, with a game to go. There is even something slightly positive to be taken from the haul of 19 batting points. It may be easily the worst among their rivals, but they managed only 16 last summer. And even 11 Steve Smiths would struggle to rack up 400s at the Riverside.If one eye is on the field, the other must be on the ledgers. The latest accounts, up to the end of September 2018, were lodged with Companies House recently and reveal an overall loss for the year of £1,136,418. This against a profit of £2,227,951 for 2017, when they received £2 million from the ECB for agreeing not to apply to stage Test cricket for the foreseeable future.Durham certainly know the meaning of the word ‘battle’. Whatever the paucity of certain techniques, enough of them showed the guts required to fight their way into a final day. The forecast is good, again, and the new ball is only one over old, but at a time when matches are routinely finishing way ahead of schedule their lower order deserve credit for refusing to succumb to the inevitable.Ned Eckersley held things together during the gloom of a floodlit extra half hour, when Northants failed in a dubious mission to bounce their way to a breakthrough. Rossington must question his earlier strategy of easing up on Eckersley to focus on removing his tail-end partners. Matt Salisbury has faced 55 balls for his two runs, undaunted even after being struck by Doug Bracewell.In fact, Durham’s best periods bookended an otherwise rather dispiriting day. They struck in each of the first two overs, with the ball seaming away, and a brilliant diving catch by Cameron Steel at backward point removed Brett Hutton just as he was starting to smite profitably. But a last-wicket stand of 51 between Procter and Ben Sanderson shifted the initiative.Procter completed his fifty from 109 balls and went along at better than a run a ball thereafter. No stroke startled as much as his straight six against Brydon Carse, which prompted a change of ball, though a couple of later Vince-like cover drives by Jack Burnham would have better sated the aesthetes who always converge around the second-hand bookshop during lunch.They had only victory to anticipate as they ferreted through the shelves of slightly-foxed Swantons and mottled CMJs. In the seventh over, Alex Lees was bowled shouldering arms to Hutton, a poor decision given that the bowler was shaping the ball back in to the left-hander, and a tortured innings by Angus Robson ended with a routine catch to Rossington.After his sensational stumping on Wednesday, Rossington suffered mixed fortunes this time. He dropped Robson, not that it mattered, and needed treatment after being struck painfully on a finger. Equally, he held an absolute beauty, right-handed at full stretch when Burnham chased a wide one from Procter, who enjoyed a characteristically effective, easily-overlooked day.But Rossington’s effort was trumped by Richard Levi at third slip when Carse slashed at Bracewell. Levi did well to react quickly enough let alone hold on at full stretch. Ominously, though, Carse had kept the nuggety Eckersley company for 17 overs. Salisbury has matched that, and while Northants supporters might have chuntered on their way out at least they have one last home day ahead.

Tuesday was special for the Snedden family as Michael Snedden, the 27-year-old medium-fast bowler, became the latest from the family to play first-class cricket – he is the first fourth-generation cricketer in New Zealand’s first-class history.Michael follows in the footsteps of his father, 1980s New Zealand international Martin Snedden, grandfather Warwick Snedden, and great-grandfather Nessie Snedden to play first-class cricket.While Martin played 25 Tests and 93 ODIs between 1980 and 1990, Nessie captained the country in several representative matches against overseas sides, but his career finished before New Zealand were granted Test status.Overall, Michael is the sixth cricketer from the Snedden family to play first-class cricket, which also includes Nessie’s cousin Colin, who had a decade-long career with Auckland in the 1930s and 1940s, and Cyril, who played in 1920-21.Injuries to frontline seamers Hamish Bennett and Ollie Newton paved the way for Michael’s first-class debut for Wellington Firebirds in their second round Plunket Shield clash against Canterbury at Basin Reserve, which started on Tuesday.Michael spent his first day as a first-class cricketer in the dressing room as Wellington racked up 415 for 6 on the opening day of their second-round match against Canterbury.Michael made his List A debut for Auckland Aces during the Ford Trophy last year, but featured in just two matches that yielded three wickets. In his only innings with the bat, he made an unbeaten 18. He switched teams ahead of the 2019-20 season.Michael’s first taste of days’ cricket came in 2014, when he was picked for a tour game against the visiting Sri Lankans. It was a game in which he bowled only six overs before dislocating his shoulder. He was part of a strong New Zealand XI that played Sri Lanka again in a three-day game last year.