All posts by csb10.top

Brian Lara has denied reports that he overruled Viv Richards, West Indies’ chief selector, by changing his team moments before the toss at the start of the fourth Test at Centurion. In his column for the Trinidad Guardian, Lara said that he had great respect for Richards and that to “consider disrespecting him is unthinkable”.Neil Manthorp, writing for Wisden Cricinfo, said that Lara reinstated the fast bowler Mervyn Dillon to the starting XI even though Richards had insisted on his omission. “Lara asked him [Graeme Smith] whether he was carrying a pen,” wrote Manthorp. “A perplexed Smith looked in his pocket, found a pen and offered it to Lara. Odd became odder when Lara asked Smith to make the change himself, holding the teamsheet and requesting that Smith put a line through Adam Sanford’s name and write ‘Dillon’ in its place. A dazed Smith duly did as he was told.”Lara insisted that the decision to play Dillon rather than Sanford came about because of the state of the pitch. “After looking at the pitch, I noticed that there were visible cracks and moisture, which would have worked in Dillon’s favour, because of his height,” wrote Lara. “Sir Viv was not there and he had to be contacted. When I reached him, he agreed and, as you know, Dillon was selected.”Lara added that the article was penned by a foreign journalist (Manthorp is a leading South African cricket writer), although Tony Cozier, writing on the series for various Caribbean-based newspapers, reported that Manthorp’s version of events had supporters. He wrote: “Individuals who were in the middle when the toss was made have confirmed the report that Lara did belatedly alter the team-sheet.”Ricky Skerritt, the West Indian team manager, refused to confirm or deny the matter. “I am out of the loop as far as team selection is concerned,” he said. “You would have to ask Brian or Sir Viv.”

Two days after praising the variety in his bowling arsenal Ricky Pontingagain applauded his attack, which this time featured four frontline fastmen and no specialist spinner in a five-wicket loss to India. James Hopeswas a late withdrawal with hamstring tightness and it left Australia in atricky situation, deciding whether to replace the allrounder with a bowleror a batsman.They chose to bring in Stuart Clark for his first game of the series andalso replaced Brad Hogg with Brad Haddin in an effort to restore somebalance and add depth to the batting. That part of the gamble didn’t work- Haddin made 5 in Australia’s 159 – but Ponting said his pace attack hadadapted well to their altered roles and the result was not their fault.”There was some pretty poor batting today, 159 on that wicket was justnever enough,” Ponting said. “But the way we stuck at our task with theball and particularly in the field I thought we gave ourselves half achance of winning the game.”When Yuvraj Singh departed at 5 for 102, mistiming a Clarkslower ball, Ponting felt Australia needed to pounce and he went for brokeby reintroducing his strike bowlers Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson. “Wejust had to get a breakthrough then,” he said. “I don’t know how manytimes we went past the outside edge and there were a couple of nicks thatwent in the gap or fell just short.”Lee was fast and furious and his 1 for 42 did not reflect the threat heposed on a bouncy pitch, while Johnson’s ten overs brought 2 for 24 andClark collected 1 for 26 from ten. However, Ponting was left without atop-class slow option and waited until the 34th over to use MichaelClarke.”As it turned out today the part-timers didn’t matter because the gamewasn’t going to go that far,” he said. “But having an allrounder out ofyour side does change the balance.”Clark is third on the ICC’s Test bowling rankings but finds himselfconstantly on the fringe of the world-champion ODI side. Ponting praisedthe pressure that Clark applied, although he still referred to him as “aback-up bowler”. He might be used again if Australia rest their top fastmen later in the series but Ponting said they were handling the workloadwell at the moment.”Mitchell and Brett are both ultra-fit guys,” he said. “Brett bowledprobably one of his quickest spells of the summer tonight. He’s holding upreally well.”We’ll have a look at an opportunity somewhere to give both those guys agame off where we can. But at the moment they’re going well. We’re goingto Perth now, we’re going to need our best bowling attack over there.”The Melbourne result leaves India and Australia each with a win, while SriLanka will search for their first victory in Canberra against India onTuesday. Ponting said Australia would need to stay on top of their game toensure they reach the finals of what will be the last tri-series inAustralia in its current format.”The last few years in Australia there’s been a bit of concern of theseries not being very close,” he said. “But right now we’ve got a reallytight tussle on our hands. All three teams have obviously a very goodchance of playing off in the finals.”

The final of Sri Lanka’s Inter-Provincial Limited-Overs Tournament will be a repeat of the last qualifying match between Kandurata and Wayamba after the final day of the qualifying stage was affected by bad weather.At the Welagedera Stadium, in a match reduced to 31 overs, table-leaders Kandurata, captained by Kumar Sangakkara, beat Wayamba by eight wickets to finish with a 100% record in the qualifying round.However, despite the defeat, Wayamba, who were captained by Mahela Jayawardene, were tied on 10 points with Basnahira North and went through to the final on superior net run rate.For Kandurate, only Jehan Mubarak, the tall Sri Lanka left-handed middle-order batsman, gotinto double figures after they were asked to bat first in seamers-friendly condition and were eventually bowled out for for 79 in only 21 overs. Mubarak, pushing for a place in the Sri Lanka side for the ODI series in Australia, top-scored with 36 with extras taking the second spot (10). The damage to the Wayamba batting was done by the fast bowlers; Akalanka Ganegama, Kaushal Weeraratne, Thilan Thushara and Chintaka Jayasinghe who captured all ten wickets to fall.Faced with the target of only 80 in 31 overs, Kandurata knocked the runs off in 19 overs to move into the final on Sunday with a great deal of confidence.The bottom of the table clash between Basnahira South and Ruhuna at the Galle International Stadium ended without a ball bowled due to rain.

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsFile photo – Thisara Perera picked up his maiden T20 five-for•AFP

An inspired Comilla Victorians crushed Rangpur Riders in a 72-run win to qualify to the BPL final. They not only withstood Thisara Perera’s five-wicket burst and a threatening start from the Rangpur openers, but also shrugged off their own injury-ravaged roster. Rangpur will now have a second shot in the second Qualifier on Sunday, facing the winner of the Eliminator.Comilla missed the services of Shoaib Malik due to a finger injury and used Nuwan Kulasekara, who bowled with a shoulder injury. The most heart-warming sight was to of the captain Mashrafe Mortaza, carrying a Grade-1 right hamstring tear, sending down four overs for only 13 runs, taking one wicket.Comilla batted well in two patches either side of Perera’s wickets. Imrul Kayes cracked 67 at the start and Ashar Zaidi slugged two sixes in a 15-ball 40 to power them to a total of 163.Rangpur began the chase in perfect manner. In the third over, Soumya Sarkar struck Shuvagata Hom for a reverse-swept four before Lendl Simmons added three more boundaries through the leg-side. Andre Russell then dropped Soumya, pedalling back from mid-off in the fifth over. But Rangpur’s fall began the very next ball.Running from deep midwicket, Shuvagata made up for his 17-run over with a superb catch at the square-leg boundary to get rid of Soumya, who made just nine. Abu Hider then made it two wickets off two balls when he removed Simmons with a stunning yorker, the batsman falling over and the ball ricocheting off his pads and into the stumps.Zaidi bowled a maiden in the sixth over, and Mortaza gave away just a single off the next over, his first in the tournament since December 8. The pressure told, as Zaidi had Mohammad Mithun stumped and Shakib Al Hasan caught at deep midwicket off the next ball. Mohammad Nabi struck a six and a four but fell to Mashrafe in the 11th over before Hider came into the picture again, this time with a running catch to get rid of Jahurul Islam. At 62 for 6, Rangpur were well past gone in the chase.Hider came back to bowl his second over and saw Ahmed Shehzad drop a simple chance at long-on off Perera’s bat before clean bowling him a ball later. Zaidi’s fourth wicket was of Darren Sammy in the 16th over, the arm ball capping a stunning all-round display. Hider then picked up another to bag his second four-for in the tournament and become its highest wicket-taker with 21 scalps.Put in to bat, Comilla waited till the end of the third over to find the boundary, Kayes swatting Arafat Sunny through square-leg. Liton Das struck one four in a labored 37-ball 28 but Kayes kept the run rate up with two fours each off Shakib and Mohammad Nabi in the fifth and sixth over. A Kayes blast over cover, off Al-Amin Hossain, then brought up Comilla’s highest opening stand in the tournament as well as the longest opening partnership from a team batting first this season.Liton fell to a beautiful delivery from Saqlain Sajib in the eleventh over before Kayes reached his first fifty of the season, and his second overall in the tournament.Mashrafe’s promotion of himself and Andre Russell to No 3 and No. 4 didn’t work, and the captain’s wicket began the Perera show. The Sri Lankan seamer then dismissed Russell and had Kayes caught and bowled, ending a 48-ball knock that included seven fours and two sixes. Both those sixes came off Shakib, who also had a stumping missed by Mithun when Kayes was on 58.When Shehzad was trapped leg-before for a golden duck at the end of the 16th over, Perera had picked up his first T20 four-for and although he didn’t complete the hat-trick in the next over, he finished with 5 for 26 from his four overs with the wicket of Alok Kapali. Courtesy of Zaidi’s 15-ball 40 in the last 4.3 overs, Comilla took their score to 163 for 7. He struck four fours and two sixes, one a straight blast off Sunny and the next a hit over midwicket off Nabi who gave away 18 runs in the last over.

Inzamam-ul-Haq has revealed his doubt over leading Pakistan, a mindset that doubtless has a great deal to do with the rigours of the current tour. Inzamam’s comments came in the wake of a tumultuous week for Pakistan, in which a rape allegation was levelled against one of their players.”I am uncertain about it,” Inzamam told when asked about his future as captain. “There’s been a lot of criticism in Pakistan about me. I am not feeling good on the inside and I am not sure whether it is something I want to keep doing.”After Pakistan were crushed in the three-Test series, where he missed two Tests due to injury, Inzamam had to contend with scathing remarks from various quarters. Inzamam admitted that it was the “hardest tour” that he had been on. “The Australian tour is always hard,” he said. “The conditions are different and Australia is the best team in the world. But this tour has been harder than normal, especially for me.”Imran Khan, the former Pakistan captain, had termed Pakistan’s performance “spineless” and suggested that Younis Khan be given the captaincy. Pakistan are scheduled to tour West Indies in May and Inzamam said he would consider the future of his captaincy at the end of that tour. “I don’t know why he [Imran] is doing this and saying these things,” Inzamam said. “It is disappointing. It’s not good for me and not good for the young boys in the team. Criticism is OK. But I don’t think the performances have been that bad.”Inzamam found some form in the last two games of the VB Series with a composed 68 in the four-wicket loss to Australia at Hobart and a rapid 62 from 51 deliveries that took his side to victory against West Indies at the Gabba.

Indian coach John Wright, captain Sourav Ganguly, Man of the match Anil Kumble and Zimbabwean captain Stuart Carlisle spoke to the press after India’s comprehensive innings and 101 runs win in the first Test at Nagpur.Deep Dasgupta’s continued poor showing behind the stumps has been a matter of concern in recent times. Speaking about the Indian wicket-keeper, Wright said, “He has to perform better. It is understandable that it is not easy to keep wickets like these which turn to this extent. But we have to perform better at the end of the day, he (Deep) has to take the chances.”A `keeper has a very important role when he is in a side which has quality spin bowlers. He has improved himself while standing behind, but standing up he has to improve drastically. He will be getting another chance and should work hard at doing better.”I don’t want to go into the selection matters, but at the end of the day, I would tell you, you should have your best `keeper in the side.”Fielding was one area in which the Zimbabweans proved to be better than the Indians and this did not escape the keen eyes of Wright.”As far as fielding is concerned, we have a long way to go. I’m very much impressed with the way Zimbabweans fielded and if we have to play overseas and against quality teams then I’m sorry to say, we have a long way to go. At the end of the day I would like to say that some of our best players are our worst fielders, that’s a fact,” the straight-talking Indian coach said.”I don’t know how I could change that. Basically, they need to field a lot better but sometimes people are at this part of their career that it is difficult to teach someone who has played for ten long years, how to dive,” he added.Wright also lauded Sanjay Bangar, who made a Test hundred in just his second Test at about the same time that another No. 7, Australia’s Adam Gilchrist, made the fastest double-hundred in Test history. “It is a nice thing for a team for the number seven batsman to come out and score a hundred.”Bangar might have succeeded in the most glorious fashion but VVS Laxman’s failure meant that a number of people were calling for the Hyderabadi stylist’s head. The former New Zealand captain was rousing in his defence of the star of India’s famous Test series win over Australia.”He is too good a player and there is no question about his ability. If you look at his last fifteen matches, he has an average of 43-44 but you have to look at his statistics. That delivery to which he got out in the first innings was very good. I have no doubts about his potential,” Wright said.Ganguly, for his part, agreed with his coach’s views, saying, “John has said it all, so I don’t have to go on saying something on the same topic.”Talking about the competition between Bangar and Sehwag, the skipper said, “Well, it is for the selection committee to decide. However, with Bangar serving us as an all-rounder, it will always be of great help.”Kumble, meanwhile, was happy with the way in which he and his colleagues bowled. “I think we did really well in the first innings. The second innings just happened to us. We had 280 odd runs to defend. I have always said that if the batsmen perform well, it makes our job that much easier.”It is good to bowl with Harbhajan in tandem. Like partnerships help a lot in batting, it is also the same for bowling. With Harbhajan and myself bowling from two ends, the task was much easier. bowled really well, though going wicketless. However, he got his rewards on the last day, scalping four wickets.”Carlisle, though, had no reasons to be as effusive as Kumble. His team’s batting failed twice on a batting paradise and that saw the Zimbabweans being thrashed. “Our batsmen have to get bigger scores. The Flower brothers have been struggling. They have to work hard and come back to their own selves.”The Zimbabwean captain was liberal in his praise for his left-arm spinner Raymond Price; the latter, if you remember, claimed 5 for 182 in India’s only innings.”I am very happy for Price. Streak bowled well too and full marks to (Trevor) Gripper in the second innings. Price is young and inexperienced but he did well. He should be getting to learn more and improve during the rest of the series. That’s one of the positives of this Test.”

After a drubbing at the hands of Sri Lanka in their last match, to say nothing of defeat in the final Ashes Test, Australia got back to winning ways in the latest VB Series encounter with a tense victory over England in Hobart. With a hundred from Damien Martyn, and some wayward English bowling, Australia managed to get just enough to withstand an opening partnership of 165 by Marcus Trescothick and Nick Knight that appeared to have put England right on course for a win. Then a mid-order collapse left the later batsmen with just too much to do and Australia got home by a mere seven runs.The Australians had suffered a collapse at the start of their innings. They were reduced to 53 for three in the eleventh over, having lost Adam Gilchrist – given out lbw despite an inside edge – and Ricky Ponting to Jimmy Anderson before Matthew Hayden gave a return catch to Steve Harmison’s second ball.It was a day, however, when Harmison’s radar proved to be on the blink. He bowled five wides in that first over, and 11 in total during his eight overs. The total of 22 wides in the innings proved to be England’s undoing. The Australian bowlers delivered only two wides and six no balls throughout the England innings and England coach Duncan Fletcher will no doubt impress on his attack that in this form of cricket such indiscipline can prove to be costly, as it did here.After the dismissal of Hayden, Martyn began to stage the recovery, featuring in century partnerships with both Michael Bevan and Jimmy Maher. Bevan is as adept as anyone in world cricket in these situations. He was ruffled by being hit on the grille by Anderson, but came through to restore Australia to a competitive position.When Bevan fell for 52, edging a ball from Ian Blackwell onto his stumps, Australia were 171 for four after 35 overs, allowing the new batsman, Maher, to play with more freedom. But while he was seeing the innings through with a run-a-ball 49, Martyn was also becoming more expansive so that 89 runs came from the final ten overs.Martyn was dropped by Paul Collingwood off Anderson when he was on 51. It was one of a number of missed opportunities by England, but this proved to be the most costly by far as Martyn steered Australia towards a defendable total. After facing 113 balls and taking nine fours, he turned the last ball of the innings off Andrew Caddick to fine leg for another boundary to bring up his fourth one-day international hundred.Glenn McGrath was back in the Australian attack but he suffered like all the bowlers as Knight and Trescothick got the innings away to a perfect start for England. However, it was not his bowling that proved painful to McGrath for he was not leaking runs at the same rate as the others. It was his back, and he was forced to limp from the field after bowling seven overs.After such a good start, it was the fall of Knight’s wicket when he was bowled by Andy Bichel for 85 that began a collapse that saw seven wickets fall for the addition of 99 runs inside the last 20 overs of the innings. Left-arm wrist-spinner Brad Hogg picked up three of those wickets, including Owais Shah and Paul Collingwood in one over as England lost the momentum given them by the openers.Nasser Hussain stayed to anchor the innings, but found nobody to support him and inject the necessary acceleration as overs ran out. There was a brief period when Alec Stewart appeared to be doing just that, adding 41 in five overs with Hussain for the sixth wicket. Had this pair been able to bat through to the end in this fashion, England would have got home with something to spare.Australia’s fielding had not been flawless, but Martyn made no mistake when holding Stewart off the bowling of Shane Watson. Watson, given the last over, then bowled Hussain for 43 with the 38th ball the captain had faced. Caddick took two off the next ball but two swings and two misses off the final two balls saw England’s total remain seven runs short of Australia’s and it was the home side who secured their place in the finals.

National League Division TwoDivision Two Table Hampshire 216 for 8 (Kenway 78) beat Northamptonshire 162 (Mascarenhas 4 for 22, Udal 4 for 40) by 54 runs
ScorecardDimitri Mascarenhas and Shaun Udal took advantage of The Rose Bowl lights as Hampshire bowled out the league leaders Northamptonshire for a meagre 162 and won by a comfortable 54 runs.While the Northants bowlers struggled to extract life from the pitch, Mascarenhas darted the ball around at will, and took the two big wickets of Mike Hussey and Phil Jaques early on, both trapped lbw with the ball swinging in to their pads. That left Northants on a stuttering 19 for 3 and two more wickets from Mascarenhas sank them in to further trouble at 50 for 5.David Sales provided some resistance with 73 from 115 balls, but while his team-mates continued to perish at regular intervals, he was fighting a lost cause. He was eventually last man out, bowled by Udal, who wrapped up the tail with 4 for 40 as Northants crashed to 162.For Hampshire, Derek Kenway held the innings together with 78 from 112 balls, and put on 75 for the second wicket with James Hamblin, who scored 32. It was Hampshire’s seventh win of the season and pushed them up to third spot of the second division.

On a day that was curtailed after tea by gloomy light, Hampshire were firmly in control of their final Frizzell County Championship match of the season at Derby.Going into the final day, Hampshire, who had a lead of 263 on first innings, had taken four Derbyshire wickets and there was some doubt whether captain Dominic Cork would appear for the home side having tendered his resignation.James Hamblin and Dimitri Mascarenhas took their overnight partnership beyond three figures before the rather circumspect latter fell to the impressive Graeme Welch.Despite being felled from a ball that would have had him palpably leg before to Welch only to see the umpire signal yet another Derbyshire no-ball, he and Hamblin took Hampshire well past 500 before Hamblin fell four short of a well deserved maiden first-class century. He was unfortunate to receive a delivery with barely lifted off the ground from off-spinner Nathan Dumelow.Shaun Udal passed a half-century and in doing so gave Hampshire a new all-time record of six individual scores of fifty or more in an individual innings – something that had never been achieved in the 140 year history of Hampshire first-class cricket.It also took Hampshire to their highest first-class team total against Derbyshire.Australian Michael DiVenuto hit out in an attempt to put his side back in the game with a 50-ball 52 before James Tomlinson had him caught behind. His opening partner Andrew Gait was forced to retire hurt when the same bowler got a ball to lift and hit him under the heart.Rawait Khan steadied the middle-order once Stubbings and Hasan Adnan had been dismissed with a solid half-century, but shortly before the players were taken from the field, James Bruce upended his off-stump with his score at 58.Gait returned, received a Brucie bouncer and the light was offered.Hampshire will be looking to press home their advantage, with Derbyshire still 103 behind with six, or maybe five, wickets in hand.

Sunil Gavaskar believes Sourav Ganguly’s form is plummeting because the Indian captain is spending too much time worrying about his team-mates. Gavaskar, who joined the squad as a batting consultant after receiving a call from Ganguly, now has him as one of his biggest problems.Ganguly made 45 in the first innings of the first Test but the nine he made at Chennai was torturous. Lacking in confidence and poking tentatively at Michael Kasprowicz’s off-cutters, he was dropped on nought and four before falling to Jason Gillespie. “As captain he is always bothered about the performances of the others,” Gavaskar said. “As a result his own batting has suffered. He should get over it.”Ganguly is struggling to find the right opening partner for Virender Sehwag and of greater concern is the inability of Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman to torment Australia again. Laxman has 38 runs in three innings while Dravid has made 86 and Ganguly 59. “They are all quality players, they have all performed in the past,” said Gavaskar.The imminent return of Sachin Tendulkar for the third Test will be easing Ganguly’s mind. Tendulkar has been having a daily net session at the MIG Cricket Club in Mumbai, where he played as a boy.Tendulkar’s last game was a one-dayer on August 1 but Ganguly denied such a long layoff would make him too rusty. “I don’t think it will be a problem,” said Ganguly. “He is a cricketer par excellence. He will be able to get back into rhythm straight away.”Tendulkar’s latest net session began with barely a soul in sight. He started by bowling his legspinners with a yellow and red tennis ball. He batted while one of his best mates, Atul Ranade, bowled. Tendulkar faced a tennis ball for a few minutes then graduated to a match ball.Ranade bowled slowly until Tendulkar told him to “make it interesting”. Tendulkar stroked cover drives and late cuts and most of the other shots in his wide repertoire. Not once did he wince in pain. Asked whether he would play at Nagpur he said: “Should know in four days.” Tendulkar will have a fitness test on Sunday.