Andrew Strauss has capped a “dream” year by being named England’s Player of the Year in London. Strauss, the 28-year-old opening batsman, picked up five centuries in his first 12 Tests and said the award was a great honour.”It has gone far better than I ever thought it would,” he told . “The key was getting runs early on and proving to myself I could play at that level.”Strauss boosted England with a Man-of-the-Series display in the win over South Africa as he scored 656 runs and collected three hundreds. “The only chance I have had to sit down and reflect upon what has happened was after the tour of South Africa,” he said. “When we did get a break I just thought ‘that was a hell of a 12 months’. I really have been living the dream.”Despite a poor start to the county season, Strauss is ready for the Bangladesh series that starts on Thursday. His stunning rise also helped England to an unprecedented unbeaten year in 2004. “It is easier to perform in a successful side,” he said. “You can afford to go out and be positive about the way you play and back your gameplan. We have all fed off each other over the past year.”
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.”
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.
Everton’s 1-0 victory at home against Newcastle could turn out to be season-defining, with the Toffees now moving three points clear of 18th-placed Watford with two games in hand, and four points clear of Burnley in 19th in the Premier League table.
The Goodison Park crowd erupted after a 99th-minute goal from Alex Iwobi shattered the visitors’ hearts, and the Magpies will rue not taking full advantage of their extra man after Toffees midfielder Allan was sent off for a cynical challenge on Allan Saint-Maximin.
Everton boss Frank Lampard confessed after the match: “I’ve broken my hand by the way in the celebrations. I’ll take it for three points! It was in the celebrations for the goal. I didn’t realise at the time, but as the game carried on it was a bit sore there. It’s a bit shaky but it’s fine. I don’t care.
“It was an amazing night. It’s important that we put perspective on it, because we need those nights and there’s a long way to go.
“We must enjoy them and we must realise what got us that win. It was spirit, it was togetherness. I spoke to the players in the week and a lot of them stood up tonight.”
However, Iwobi wasn’t the star man on the pitch, as 34-year-old Asmir Begovic – standing in for virus-hit Jordan Pickford, earned the highest match rating by far (8.4) from SofaScore.
With the Magpies dominating possession and having the majority of the chances, the Bosnia-Herzegovina goalkeeper was called upon to make six vital saves, including four from within the 18-yard box, on his way to keeping his first Premier League clean sheet since Bournemouth’s 2-0 win over Brighton back in December 2018.
The former Chelsea and AC Milan shot-stopper also won all three of his aerial duels and completed eight long balls forward, one punch, one run-out and two clearances to relieve the tiring Toffees defence. The only thing he failed to stop was a protestor who cable-tied himself to Begovic’s goalpost.
Should he be called upon by Lampard again for Everton’s visit to Crystal Palace in the FA Cup quarter-Finals this weekend if Pickford is still unavailable, the 34-year-old will be heading into the game on a high as he seeks a third successive clean sheet in all competitions.
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He has had to be patient for opportunities this season, but Begovic – who was hailed as “the ultimate professional” by his former Cherries boss Eddie Howe, ironically now in charge of Newcastle – literally saved his team on numerous occasions last night, coming good when he was very much needed.
In other news: Everton now plotting bid for £11.8m “disaster”, he’s another huge Moshiri blunder
ScorecardAfter a sparkling start, the Ahmedabad Rockets seem to have fizzled out. Their eight-wicket loss to the Kolkata Tigers was their fourth consecutive defeat and leaves them languishing at the bottom of the points table. In a rain-affected tie, the Tigers were set a revised target of 85 in tenovers, which they easily chased down with eight balls to spare.After deciding to bat, the Rockets were in trouble early as captain Damien Martyn and Wavell Hinds fell cheaply. Murray Goodwin and left-hand batsman Parvez Aziz started the recovery, but the run-rate remained less than what would be expected in Twenty20 games. It was left to Sridharan Sriram (52 off 35 balls) to boost the scoring-rate, first with the help of Anshu Jain, and then, providing the final flourish with Martin Sanjeev (22 off 15 balls) as the Rockets posted a competitive 156.The rain came down during the interval, reducing the number of overs available for the Tigers’ chase to ten. They rarely looked in trouble, with the 14-run first over setting the tone, and cantered tovictory to move into fourth spot.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has cleared all 68 cricketers randomly tested during the World Cup. Their samples produced a negative result for banned substances.”The fact that all drug tests at the World Cup proved negative is a great result for the game. It sends out a very positive message, something everyone connected with the game can be very proud of” Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, said.Speed also said that the tests confirms cricket’s low-risk reputation when it comes to performance-enhancing drugs, but warned against complacency in this regard. Fifteen of the tournament’s 51 matches were randomly chosen. Two players from the teams involved in these matches were, again, randomly picked for testing, giving a total of 68 samples that were sent for analysis.But there was indeed some drug-related controversy in the run up to the World Cup, when Pakistan fast bowlers Shoaib Akhtar and Mohammad Asif were found to have consumed nandralone in an internal drug test conducted by the Pakistan Board. The duo were initially banned but cleared by an enquiry committee led by Justice Fakhruddin Ibrahim.The WADA had strongly contested the findings of the committee, and a case regarding the matter is still in arbitration. The official reason given by the Board for the absence of the two from the World Cup was that they were injured.Asif has since been selected in the Pakistan squad to take on Sri Lanka in three ODIs in Abu Dhabi, while Shoaib has been picked in the Asian squad to take part in the Afro-Asia Cup next month.
Carlton Baugh stroked a belligerent half-century to lift West Indies A to a series-clinching four-wicket victory over England A at the Windward Club. Baugh, the dimunitive wicketkeeper-batsman, pulled West Indies A from a precarious 50 for 5 to help them to a target of 182 with ten overs to spare.Omari Banks, the offspinner, had led the choke operation this morning, snaring three wickets and restricting England A to a modest 181. Marlon Samuels and Darren Sammy chipped in with two wickets apiece and, barring Alex Wharf’s rapid 37, none of the batsmen found the going too easy.West Indies A stumbled to 50 for 5, but were bailed out of trouble by Baugh. With the pressure on, Baugh lashed 71 off 73 balls with five fours and four sixes that eventually guided West Indies to a comfortable victory. It took them to a 3-2 series win after a fine 1-0 triumph in the two-match unofficial Test series. Baugh was especially severe on Gareth Batty, the offspinner, who he belted for three sixes and he thoroughly dominated a sixth-wicket partnership of 101 with Narsingh Deonarine.Left-handed Deonarine, short of runs in the series, benefited from a vital missed stumping on 9 to finish on an unbeaten 34, while Darren Sammy rushed West Indies to victory by spanking 20 off just 16 balls with four boundaries. Baugh first signalled his intentions by lifting Batty over cover for his first six. The second also went over cover off the back foot against the same bowler, who was then lifted over midwicket.His fourth six was his most memorable, charging fast medium Rikki Clarke and lifting him over extra-cover. Baugh eventually holed out to deep midwicket attempting a fifth six with 31 runs still needed, but there were no further alarms for West Indies.Their early problems were caused by Sajid Mahmood, the tall fast bowler, who emerged as the leading wicket-taker in both the Tests and limited-overs series with 24 scalps overall. Mahmood, who finished with 3 for 34 in nine overs, had Lendl Simmons caught at the wicket, induced Marlon Samuels (19) into top-edging an attempted hook and had Sylvester Joseph (7) chipping a catch to cover.
Scorecard Honours were pretty much even at the end of a low-scoring first day between Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates in their Intercontinental Cup match at Sharjah. Hong Kong were shot out for 126, but UAE fared little better and had stumbled to 126 for 7 by the close.Gunthorpe (38) and Ilyas Gul (32 not out) managed the only resistance of note for Hong Kong; no other batsman made double figures. Mohammad Tauqir took 3 for 31, but the miserly figures of Khuram Khan (19-9-20-2) and Rizwan Latif (8-3-11-2) also stand out; they each took two wickets at barely one run an over. Kahn then shone with the bat – he posted a top score of 56 – while it was Gul’s turn to star with the ball; he took 3 for 16 from 10 to keep this match hanging firmly in the balance.
Daniel Marsh, Tasmania’s captain, was delighted with his team’s unusually lofty mid-season standing after a 213-run win over South Australia at the Adelaide Oval.The resounding victory lifted Tasmania into second place in the Pura Cup table, behind Victoria, unfamiliar territory at this stage of the year given Tasmania’s tradition of poor starts.”Normally we’re just starting our run, we normally don’t get too many points before Christmas,” Marsh said. “And I guess the beauty is we’ve got Michael Di Venuto to come back into the team and Shane Watson to start bowling again, hopefully in the not-too-distant future.”Watson, an Australian one-day player who had to withdraw from last year’s World Cup squad with a back injury, has since been playing for Tasmania purely as a batsman. But Marsh said Watson had been bowling in the nets and was set to bowl later this month: “We’re hoping to have him right to bowl for the next one-dayer.”Tasmania cleaned up the win in the space of a session, taking the final six second -innings SA wickets needed. Chasing an improbable 430 to win in the final innings, SA resumed at 4-110 with little hope of avoiding defeat.Darren Lehmann (10) popped a simple catch to gully off Damien Wright’s bowling on the opening ball of the day. Gerard Denton, the Man of the match, picked up Graham Manou in the following over, then, in the fifth over of the day, Wright dismissed John Davison to leave SA on 7 for 126.By then a Tasmanian victory was inevitable, although Mick Miller and Mark Cleary delayed it with an entertaining stand of 65 in 99 balls.They took a particular liking to Shannon Tubb’s left-arm spinners, with Miller hitting consecutive sixes off one of his overs, and Cleary belting consecutive fours off his next over.Andrew Downton then bowled Cleary to snuff out SA’s resistance and they were all out for 216 soon after. Denton finished with 3 for 22 and Wright 5 for 43.SA’s meagre total today, along with their first innings of 112 – a record low against Tasmania – caused Lehmann to apologise to supporters.”We apologise for what we’ve been doing and we can only promise that we’ll work harder and play better,” he said. On a brighter note, Lehmann said he had pulled up well physically after his first Pura Cup match back from an achilles tendon injury.