All posts by csb10.top

On an rather interesting day’s play Railways reduced the hosts UttarPradesh to 157 and gained a first innings lead of 77 runs, and went onto extend it by another 125 by the end of the third day at the SportsStadium in Meerut on Wednesday.Resuming at the overnight score of 98 for 5, the UP innings folded upin a further 30.5 overs. Skipper Gynender Pandey (56 not out) whoscored a sedate half century fought a lone battle. After the fall ofhis overnight partner Rizwan Shamshed (25) none of the other batsmenmanaged to stay long at the crease thus leaving Pandey stranded.Parida (5 for 33) added one more scalp to his credit while the otherwickets were shared allround.In reply Railways made a sedate start to their second innings withopeners TP Singh (32) and Sanjay Bangar (5) adding 33 runs in 10.1overs. Then Shalab Srivastava sent back Bangar and skipper AbhaySharma (4) in quick succession. TP Singh also did not last long and hedeparted, bowled by Raza. But Yere Goud (26) and Raza Ali (34) added63 runs for the fourth wicket. But UP made a come back after the fallof Raza Ali, bowled by Pandey, when Mohd Kaif struck two blows toleave the visitors in a spot of bother at Stumps. Railways by the endof the day had extended their lead to 202 runs.

Eight Pakistani players, including fast bowlers Mohammad Sami and Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, have signed up to play in the unofficial Indian Cricket League (ICL).All eight players have represented Pakistan at the international level. Sami, Naved-ul-Hasan, Mushtaq Ahmed, Humayun Farhat, Shahid Nazir, Hasan Raza, Imran Nazir and Riaz Afridi will now join six other Pakistan players who are already part of the league.The Pakistan board, meanwhile, showed no sign of softening their stance towards players moving to the league. “Our domestic teams and players are like a family for us and we have worked for their welfare and betterment,” said Zakir Khan, director operations PCB.”Players are given salaries and retainers at domestic level now. If after all this these guys want to join the ICL, we wish them well and good luck. Our stance remains the same still [barred from selection for Pakistan and domestic cricket]. A number of these players are in the twilight of their careers anyway.”Sami is the most high-profile signing, having played for Pakistan as recently as December last year, in the third Test against India in Bangalore. Humayun, who kept wicket in one Test and five ODIs, joins his brother Imran, while Raza, who, in 1996 became the youngest Test cricketer at 14 years and 227 days, last played for Pakistan in 2005. Shahid Nazir, a promising fast bowler when he burst onto the scene in 1996, has also been in and out of the side over the last decade.The youngest of the lot is fast bowler Riaz Afridi, an Under-19 World Cup winner in 2004, who has one Test under his belt. Imran Nazir, a batsman touted as the next big thing after a scintillating hundred in Barbados in 2000, made a comeback last year to the team, but played his last one-dayer against India in November and was overlooked for a central contract by the Pakistan board.There are reports that Arshad Khan, the offspinner, was to join as well, especially after he resigned from the PCB’s junior selection committee. “Arshad Khan, who is the member of the Junior Selection Committee of Pakistan Cricket Board, tendered his resignation yesterday in view of better opportunity elsewhere,” a board statement said. “The management has accepted his resignation with immediate effect.” However, the Zee Group, who are behind the ICL, insist that this is the final list and that Arshad isn’t part of the league as of now.Inzamam-ul-Haq, Imran Farhat, Taufeeq Umar, Shabbir Ahmed, Abdul Razzaq and Azhar Mahmood signed up when the league was launched last year. Mohammad Yousuf decided to join too before pulling out. The Pakistan board subsequently barred the players from representing Pakistan or playing domestic cricket.”We are extremely pleased to welcome these players to the ICL family,” said Kapil Dev, the former Indian captain who is currently the chairman of the executive board for the ICL. “These talented & experienced cricketers will definitely be a great source of learning for the youngsters who will play with them. Under their guidance, the Indian Cricket League players will develop skills comparable to the best of international cricketing talent.”

Can he? Can’t he? Will he? Won’t he? Should he? Shouldn’t he? Does he want to? Doesn’t he want to? Does it even matter what he wants?AB de Villiers and his wicketkeeping gloves are back for another season. A quick refresher: De Villiers will keep wickets and open the batting for the T20 side from now until next year’s World T20. He will not captain the T20 side. He will not keep wickets or open the batting in the one-day side, which he will also captain. He will not keep wickets, captain nor open the batting in the Test side. Got it?About five years back, de Villiers stoically refused to keep because he wanted to be the best batsmen in the world. He then heroically accepted the gloves in shorter formats when Mark Boucher was dropped, and later also in Tests when Boucher’s career ended. De Villiers also took on the captaincy in the shorter formats, which eventually became too much to handle when coupled with the responsibility of keeping.De Villiers can do anything on a sports field, and there was a time when it was thought he could do everything as well. But those things are different. Anything can be done in isolation, everything has to be done all at once and sometimes, even some who can do anything, cannot do everything. Both de Villiers and South Africa learnt that the hard way.A chronic back issue means de Villiers cannot both keep and be the pivot of the batting line-up in all formats, so there has had to be a compromise. Besides captaining, de Villiers will do it all in the format which gives South Africa their next opportunity to win a major trophy, something they will do anything to get.”Deciding to put AB at the top was a conscious change we made leading up to the World T20,” Faf du Plessis, who will captain in the T20s explained. That makes sense because, as du Plessis said, “the best time to bat is in those first couple of overs and you want to give your most explosive, best players a crack at getting in early and scoring runs.”The decision to have de Villiers keep was unexpected, and came as a result of Quinton de Kock being dropped. It also required some convincing. “That’s the benefit of being best friends with someone – you can tweak things a little more,” du Plessis joked. “To be honest, keeping wicket is something he does’t really want to do; it’s not on his priority list and it does affect him on his back.”But having de Villiers keep “solves a lot of problems for us,” du Plessis said, because it means he can slot in to replace de Kock without South Africa changing the rest of the line-up. They can have de Villiers as the new de Kock with Amla at the top, and have made room for an extra player in the middle order. That’s the way they are going to go about this T20 series and probably, at the World T20.

“That’s something we will stick with even though the conditions may say otherwise. In Durban, with a bit more grass, your cricket brain tells you you should keep AB back because the ball will move around a little bit and there is potential for him getting out early but it’s not about this, its about the bigger picture. He needs to get used to batting in that new role,” du Plessis said. “We’ve got Hash back to slot in at the top there and I think that’s a good combination.; they complement each other really well.”Where does that leave the other opening-batsman-gloveman South Africa picked for these matches, Morne van Wyk?”Morne is our back-up keeper,” du Plessis said. Despite scoring a century the last time he played a T20 international and being a like-for-like replacement for de Kock, van Wyk will likely carry drinks in T20 cricket because it appears South Africa do not see him as a World T20 candidate. “It’s important to give AB some opportunity at the top. He is a fantastic player but he is also human and he wants to get practice in the new role. If Morne does not keep it makes it quite tough for him to make the team at the moment.”Van Wyk may get a chance to play in de Kock’s place in the ODIs next week, when de Villiers will return to the middle order and as captain.”The only format we will see AB keeping in is T20 cricket – one-day cricket is just too much for him from a captaincy point of view,” du Plessis said. “He likes being next to the bowlers and controlling the game. If he was keeping, he is too far away.”Also, his body is quite important, we need AB to play for as long as possible so in saying that, Test cricket and one-day cricket, it’s going to be tough for him to keep. It would be great if he could but to get longevity out of AB its important that he doesn’t. It’s nice because we’ve got possibilities there for the T20s and it will only be something until the World Cup, not after that.”After all that, you may think du Plessis’ main concern for his best friend would be how he will keep himself from getting confused about what he can, can’t, should or shouldn’t want to do but all du Plessis wishes is that de Villiers gets some good sleep.”He has got his baby with him on tour so now it’s just about making sure he gets some sleep – that’s quite important for us.”

ScorecardAlex Wakely recorded his fourth first-class hundred•Getty Images

Alex Wakely’s first-class best 123 led Northamptonshire from danger on the opening day at Wantage Road. From 42 for 4, Northants recovered to post 325 against Leicestershire. Three wickets late in the day as the visitors began their reply completed the comeback.Mark Cosgrove’s decision to bowl first initially paid dividends when Clint McKay struck four times in the opening hour but Wakely settled and went through to his fourth first-class century, helping his side to a healthy total but perhaps only a par score on a good batting surface.Wakely looked in superb touch from the start of his innings with a delightful back-foot drive off Ben Raine and an imperious pull against Wayne White among the 10 fours that he scored in reaching his fifty from 68 balls. He survived a strong shout for lbw on 52 and was becalmed in the hour after the lunch break. But he began to move his tally along again, opening the face to run White towards vacant third man, and a second pull stroke took him to 90. Clipping the off spin of Rob Sayer through midwicket nudged him three away from a century and a paddle sweep brought up his fourth first-class hundred with his 18th boundary.It was Wakeley’s second century in four Championship matches, made in similar circumstances to his first of the season at Cheltenham six weeks ago with his side also in trouble. Here, he shared stands of 71 with Josh Cobb, 78 with Steven Crook and 69 with David Murphy to make good progress throughout the afternoon.Northants could well have been shot out for far fewer after the Australian McKay took four wickets in his opening eight-over spell. He struck in his second and third overs to remove both Northants openers. First the in-form Ben Duckett was lbw to an inswinging yorker and then Rob Newton, pushing hard at a ball swinging across him, got a leading edge to mid-off and fell for just 9 in his first Championship match since June.Two further wickets fell in the first hour. Both Rob Keogh, trying to leave, and Richard Levi, attempting a cut, dragged into their own stumps. Wakely and Cobb settled the situation but a dropped catch by Angus Robson at first slip – Cobb on 11 – was a sliding-doors moment. It would have given McKay a fifth wicket shortly after lunch. As it was Cobb saw off McKay and the Leicestershire back-up bowling was not as incisive. An injury to Raine did not help; he limped off having taken a knock diving for a catch at long-on.Cobb only added 19 after being dropped but Steven Crook, after his whirlwind first-class best against Australia last weekend, continued the counter-attack. He flicked his first ball for four through midwicket, and immediately took on the offspin of Sayer, slog-sweeping him over midwicket. But having late-cut his eighth four, he skipped down to Sayer, missed, and was stumped for 40 in 31 balls.Overall, the last six Northants wickets added 283 with Rory Kleinveldt making 43 to push Northants to a third batting point.And they were able to apply pressure in the 15 overs they had to bowl at Leicestershire late in the day. Lewis Hill failed to deal with a rising Kleinveldt delivery that he gloved down the leg side and the same bowler produced a good delivery to square up Ned Eckersley and take out his off stump for a duck. A third wicket fell five overs from the close with Sam Robson chasing a wide ball and edging behind. Leicestershire closed 295 runs behind.

Jagmohan Dalmiya, the BCCI president, suffered a heart attack on Thursday evening, and has undergone an angiogram at the BM Birla hospital in Kolkata, a senior Cricket Association of Bengal official told ESPNcricinfo. He was in a critical care unit, but was reported to be stable.Dalmiya, 75, had not been in good health since beginning his third term as BCCI president in March this year, having taken over from N Srinivasan. A long-serving cricket administrator, Dalmiya has been president of the ICC, has held different offices in the BCCI, and occupied top posts in the CAB in a career that began in 1979.Former India captain Sourav Ganguly, who is joint secretary of the CAB, and other board officials had arrived at the hospital to visit Dalmiya, who is expected to remain under observation for a few days.The hospital’s medical bulletin, accessed by the Kolkata-based said: “Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya, 75 years, came to BM Birla Heart Research Centre at around 9 pm today, almost 6 hours after the onset of chest pain, with a history of acute extensive anterior myocardial wall infarction… His blood pressure and pulse were stable.”Patient after initial clinical assessment was taken to cath lab for coronary angiography. Multiple lesions were observed with total occlusion of left anterior descending coronary artery. Thrombus aspiration was performed but significant residual thrombus load persisted with poor distal run off in capillary bed. It was not advisable to do a primary stenting at this point of time.”The patient is currently under requisite medication protocol and is being closely monitored in coronary critical care unit.”

Match facts

Monday, October 5, 2015
Start time 19:00 local (13:30GMT)4:00

Agarkar: India might be tempted to try three spinners

Big picture

The balloon often pops after a big build-up but that did not happen in the series opener between these two teams. A competitive curtain raiser set the tone for what should continue to be a fiercely contested series, and if all the fixtures play out like the first one, fans are in for a fun two months.Already, one side could scoop early honours with South Africa 40 overs away from a trophy. India will want to make sure they get to Kolkata with the possibility of claiming the series. The hosts’ major concern will be the way their batsmen slunk away after a strong start against a South Africa attack that did not seem to get a measure of the conditions. Their bowlers did not find the going easier either, and may want to consider both tactical and team changes.The visitors are likely still basking in satisfaction over the way they coped with pressure, especially as it was some of their lesser lights who shone in Dharamsala. A firmer middle order and a more determined grip on key moments mean South Africa are shaping up well as they prepare for the World T20. Consistency will also be on India’s mind – they have lost four of their last five T20s and will want to turn the tide on what could become a real problem ahead of the challenges in the next two months.

Form guide

(last five completed games, most recent first)India LLWLL
South Africa WLWWW

In the spotlight

South Africa captain Faf du Plessis had hailed R Ashwin as the best spin bowler in the world and after Friday few can argue with that assessment. Ashwin was the only bowler to concede less than seven runs an over and the only one to demonstrate real guile. He was particularly astute in removing AB de Villiers, who he drew forward and then deceived with a change of pace. Ashwin will want to have similarly smart plans for the rest of the South Africa line-up in the second game.David Miller did not have the opportunity to do anything in the first match and that may be exactly what will worry him as the series draws on. Farhaan Behardien was promoted ahead of him to see South Africa through a tricky period and he ended up providing the perfect foil to JP Duminy, who finished the game in the way Miller may have wanted to do. Miller has not scored an international fifty in fifteen innings and although chances don’t come often in the middle order, he is at risk of being crowded out and will want to stake a proper claim soon.

Team news

India are unlikely to fiddle with their batting department. They may consider playing another spinner though – they have Amit Mishra and Harbhajan Singh – instead of one of their seamers.India (probable) 1 Rohit Sharma, 2 Shikhar Dhawan 3 Virat Kohli, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Ambati Rayudu, 7 Axar Patel/Stuart Binny, 8 R Ashwin, 9 Bhuvneshwar Kumar, 10 Mohit Sharma, 11 S Aravind/Harbhajan SinghThe success of the de Villiers-Hashim Amla opening combination could mean more time on the bench for Quinton de Kock, especially as the rest of South Africa’s top order looks settled. They may consider making a change to the allrounder’s spot, bringing in Albie Morkel for Chris Morris, who struggled in Dharamsala, but other changes are unlikely unless South Africa opt to play both specialist spinners.South Africa (probable) 1 AB de Villiers (wk), 2 Hashim Amla, 3 Faf du Plessis (capt), 4 JP Duminy, 5 David Miller, 6 Farhaan Behardien, 7 Chris Morris/Albie Morkel, 8 Kagiso Rabada, 9 Kyle Abbott, 10 Marchant de Lange/Eddie Leie, 11 Imran Tahir

Pitch and conditions

Bounce and carry is possibly a thing of the past as South Africa inch into the cauldron of spin that India will likely stir throughout the series. A slow pitch will not be the main concern for either team though. The pitch and square were under cover from the persistent rain on Saturday and the met office predicted more rain over the following 48 hours. All the tickets for the fixture have been sold out.

Stats and trivia

• This will be the first T20 international played in Cuttack. It has hosted two Tests and 17 ODIs, none featuring South Africa
• JP Duminy and Farhaan Behardien’s unbeaten 105-run stand on Friday equalled the highest fourth-wicket partnership in T20Is in 2015, between Shakib Al Hasan and Sabbir Rahman against Pakistan in Mirpur

Quotes

“We have to play to the South African weakness. We know they are not so good against spinners. We have got some learning done against their batters.”
“We are not as high up from an altitude point so the ball won’t travel as far. We may have to run a lot more ones and twos. From a bowler’s view we may need to protect certain pockets of the field because of the bigger dimensions. It is a lot warmer here so we will have to be smart with the way we manage our energy.”

Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsEd Cowan and Steven Smith matched each other shot for shot in an unbeaten stand of 165•Getty Images

South Australia did well to get this far. New South Wales did better to get their hands on the Matador Cup. In what proved to be a lopsided conclusion to the tournament, the Blues brushed the Redbacks aside with nine wickets and more than 20 overs to spare, vindicating the captain Steven Smith’s decision to send the visitors in to bat on a pleasant day at North Sydney Oval.Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Nathan Lyon and Sean Abbott all contributed with the ball in an even display by the Blues, which underlined the team’s intimidating depth of talent, while also exposing how a few members of the Redbacks XI still have much to learn about performing under pressure for their state. The loss of South Australia’s last seven wickets for 30 will haunt numerous members of the XI, for at 3 for 191 they had looked well placed to set a target near enough to 300.Left with a far more modest tally to chase, Nic Maddinson provided a supercharged start for the Blues before Ed Cowan and Smith matched each other shot for shot in a rollicking stand of 165 to close out the contest. Smith’s performance rounded out a strong tournament for Australia’s captain, even if it emerged that he has been carrying a sore knee for much of this year.The Redbacks had excelled in defending mid-sized targets during the competition, notably doing so twice against Victoria to knock out the far more seasoned Bushrangers’ collective. But a dropped chance in the second over, when an airy cover drive from Maddinson burst through the hands of Adam Zampa, proved to be an opportunity South Australia could not afford to spurn.As he has done all tournament, Starc made a vital early incision by bowling Travis Head with a ball nearly identical to that with which he did the very same to the young captain in the qualifying match between these teams. Hazlewood followed up with the wicket of Tim Ludeman and it took a hardy stand by Tom Cooper and Callum Ferguson to steady the Redbacks innings.Their union put South Australia in decent shape heading towards the final 10 overs, but the Blues recovered ground with remarkable ease once Cooper had reached his eighth limited-overs hundred. The very next ball had Alex Ross chipping a return catch to Abbott, and from there the innings melted away.Starc and Hazlewood came back to add another two wickets apiece, meaning the former had ripped out 26 wickets in this tournament, with no fewer than 20 of them being lbw or bowled.Maddinson, Cowan and Smith took progressively more liberties against the Redbacks bowlers in the afternoon, meaning Head could never create the sorts of pressured scenarios that allowed his young side to corral Victoria.As Smith hoisted a final six to finish things before he was embraced by Cowan, it was difficult to escape the following conclusion: this had been a tournament of progress for the Redbacks, but for a powerful Blues line-up bolstered by players available due to the postponed Bangladesh tour, the lifting of the trophy was nothing less than they had expected.

Rain was the inevitable victor in this PPP county championship match, when it halted play with 21 overs remaining. Before play started on the final day 115.3 overs in the first three days had been lost to rain.Yorkshire resumed their innings on 216 for seven with the not out batsmen Lehmann and Middlebrook. The pair rarely looked in trouble as they put on 114 for the eighth wicket. This was the highest eighth wicket partnership by Yorkshire against Derbyshire. The previous highest was made in 1976 by Geoff Cope and Graham Stevenson. James Middlebrook brought up the 50 partnership with a cover drive which went for four of Kevin Dean. In the same over Lehmann square cut him for two fours which took him to 80. However Lehmann did have a life on 94 when he was dropped by Cassar at mid-on of Lacey’s bowling.The 100 partnership was brought up by a square cut four by Middlebrook. The stand was broken when Middlebrook was leg before sweeping Rob Bailey on his highest first class score of 45. Lehman then found solid support from Hoggard and and debutante Ramsden to take the score 349. Lehmann now begun to take more chances, his hundred came up in 209 balls and included 10 fours.Hoggard was out when he top edged a slog to Krikken of Cassar. Lehmann and Ramsden took Yorkshire to lunch but the innings was only to last seven balls after lunch. Lehmann negotiated the first five ball of the first over but he was out to the first ball of the second. He was caught round the corner by Cork of the bowling of Cassar. Cassar’s bowling figures of six for 76 are the best of his first class career.Derbyshire took advantage of some wayward bowling from the deleted Yorkshire attack with four after four. They reached 209 for one after only forty overs. Stephen Stubbings made his highest championship score with 84. Michael Di Venuto scored 81 as the pair added 203 for the second wicket. Derbyshire’s only victim was opener Mathew Dowman who scored 20 before he was caught by Ramsden of Middlebrook.

Min Patel sustained his run of success by bowling Kent into a strong position against Hampshire at Portsmouth. Following his haul of 8 wickets in his county’s previous match against Derbyshire the left-arm spinner took another nine as Hampshire’s vulnerable batting folded. He took 4-118 in the first innings and 5-46 in the second innings.The hosts seemed to have started the day at an advantage being 84 ahead at 16-1. However they collapsed quickly against Patel’s accurate spin backed up by sharp fielding and catching. Only tow batsmen reached double figures in a score of 136 extras with extras at 15 being the third highest score.
Opener Giles White, who carried his bat for the second time this summer, made 80 n.o. with Dmitri Mascarenhas second highest on 17. White lasted 181 deliveries and hit six boundaries but he was unable to prevent Patel spinning out his colleagues. There was more than enough time for Kent to attain the 205 runs they needed to win and they started cautiously in bright sunshine.David Fulton and Robert Key scored 67 carefully in 34 overs as Shane Warne wascalled upon for another long bowling session. Shaun Udal had Fulton leg-before for 42 but Rahul Dravid, hero of the first innings, joined Key in taking the visitors to 117-1 from 55 overs at the end of the day. Kent have the whole of tomorrow to score the 88 runs needed to win.Warne was unable to repeat Patel’s performance but bowled tightly in conceding only 32 runs from 20 overs. Peter Hartley came closest to break the partnership between Key and Dravid but the latter edged the ball through the vacant slipsto the boundary.

On a rain-curtailed third day of this Ranji Trophy South Zone tiebetween Andhra and Kerala at Vijayawada, the visitors quickly gainedthe first innings lead and proceeded to 453/7 from 133.1 overs beforeplay was halted after lunch. The high watermark of the day was anunbeaten century by Ajay Kudua and his unbroken 196 run eighth wicketpartnership with Suresh Kumar.Resuming at 239/5, Kerala surpassed Andhra’s total of 244 in thesecond over of the day. Andhra seamer N Madhukar raised hopes of afigtback by having skipper KN Ananthapadmanabhan and V Kamaruddinsnaffled by wicketkeeper LNP Reddy off successive balls to reduceKerala to 257/7. From then on 24 year old Kudua and southpaw SureshKumar frustrated Andhra’s designs with a belligerent stand.Kudua had progressed to 153 (240 balls, 20 fours, 1 six) while SureshKumar was on 98, gathered off just 123 balls with 7 fours and 4 sixes,when play was interrupted for the day at 13.39 hours.