All posts by n8rngtd.top

Darren Lehmann, the Brisbane Heat coach, has been reprimanded and fined US$3,000 suspended for two years after being found guilty of breaching Cricket Australia’s Code of Behaviour

ESPNcricinfo staff27-Dec-2012Darren Lehmann, the Brisbane Heat coach, has been reprimanded and fined US$3,000 suspended for two years after being found guilty of breaching Cricket Australia’s Code of Behaviour. Lehmann had questioned the legitimacy of Marlon Samuels’ bowling action after his team’s loss against Melbourne Renegades on Saturday.The decision was announced following a hearing on Thursday, where Commissioner John Price found Lehmann guilty of breaching Rule 9 (Detrimental Public Comment).Samuels delivered four overs for just 18 runs in the Renegades win. “I’ve spoken to the umpires about it,” Lehmann had said after the game. “I just want something done. He couldn’t bowl in the IPL (Indian Premier League) last year, yet he can bowl in the BBL.”We’ve got to seriously look at what we’re doing. Are we here to play cricket properly or what? If he’s deemed legal, I’m totally understanding of that. But from my point of view from 20 years’ of cricket, I’ve got a problem with 120km/h off no steps.”It is not the first time Lehmann has found himself in trouble with cricket authorities. While playing for Australia in January 2003 he was suspended for five ODIs for breaching the ICC’s racial vilification code.

Chris Rogers anchored Victoria’s innings before a Chadd Sayers burst with the second new ball pulled South Australia back into the contest

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jan-2013
Scorecard
Chris Rogers anchored Victoria’s innings with his 57th first-class century before a Chadd Sayers burst with the second new ball pulled South Australia back into the contest on day one of the Sheffield Shield match at Adelaide Oval.Rogers’ innings provided another reminder of the technique and poise available to the national selectors should they wish to add an experienced batsman to their party for the Ashes later this year. But it was a less auspicious day for the potential India tourists David Hussey, bowled for one after flying to Adelaide on match morning from ODI duty in Hobart the night before.The Bushrangers lost Rob Quiney cheaply upon winning the toss and batting, but Rogers formed fruitful stands with Michael Hill and Peter Handscomb to seemingly blunt SA’s bowlers. The Test spinner Nathan Lyon had a barren day, as did the former Victorian club swing bowler Daniel Worrell.However Sayers pinned Rogers LBW with his first delivery after taking the new ball, and added the wickets of Hussey and Handscomb. Joe Mennie chimed in to dismiss John Hastings shortly before the close.

For the first time in television history, South African domestic cricket will be commentated on in a local, African language

Firdose Moonda14-Feb-2013For the first time in television history, South African domestic cricket will be commentated on in a local, African language. The Twenty20 competition will feature Xhosa commentary on all broadcasts with 17 of the 32 matches shown live, including the playoff for the final and the final itself.SuperSport, the country’s satellite provider, has contracted former internationals Mfuneko Ngam and Monde Zondeki along with veteran media man and former selector Peter Bacela and umpire Zed Ndamane in a four-person team. They will be joined by former SA schools rugby captain and cricket enthusiast Kaunda Ntunja, who works on the channels’ rugby broadcasts.The move is part of an initiative to grow cricket, particularly in black African areas. Xhosa is one of 11 official languages in South Africa and is spoken by about 18% of the population, mostly in the Eastern Cape. That is the region that is considered the hotbed of black African cricket and rugby. SuperSport already offer Xhosa commentary for rugby and now see the time to extend that to cricket as right.”We’ve spent a lot of time preparing as this is something that can’t just be slapped together when the idea comes up. We will work hard to ensure the language is conveyed in the correct and proper manner,” Louwrens Rensburg, SuperSport’s senior cricket producer said.Terminology is one of the areas which had to be studied closely before making the commitment to Xhosa commentary. Bacela, who commentated on radio in Xhosa, has been one of the pioneers for coining cricket terms in Xhosa.”This is an important day,” Bacela said. “Xhosa people love to hear commentary in their own tongue. Cricket may be an English game, but Xhosas love to hear it in their words.” He explained how a few of the words have developed such as silly point, which directly translates to “fielding under the nose,” and short leg that becomes “behind the cow’s tail.”With cricketing vocabulary set to expand, Zondeki is excited about the possibilities this will be present. “It has never been done before and we hope to get to get more people to watch cricket for longer,” he told ESPNCricinfo. “We want to raise the profile of black African cricket and it will be interesting to see the numbers of people that tune in.”

Murray Coetzee and Clyde Fortuin blazed South Africa to a series whitewash-clinching nine-wicket victory in the final match of the England tour.

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Feb-2013
ScorecardMurray Coetzee and Clyde Fortuin blazed South Africa to a series whitewash-clinching nine-wicket victory in the final match of the England tour. Their stand of 199 – the third highest for South Africa in Youth ODIs – made a mockery of the target and the pace at which the chase was completed, 6.29 an over, saw a one-sided series finished with a rout.Coetzee completed his hundred, his second of the season, with a swept four and then scored the winning runs with a loft over mid-off two balls later. He took the applause but was overshadowed by 17-year-old Clyde Fortuin who struck 16 fours in reaching 99 from 79 balls before pulling to midwicket in search of a century. The pair deserved to complete the win together but Fortuin’s dismissal afforded Coetzee enough remaining runs to reach his landmark.The solitary success was no more than a delay in leaving the field for England who competed well in the Youth Test series but have been exposed in the one-day leg. Again they scored too slowly despite a solid base. Opener Dominic Sibley compiled 84 in 142 balls and shared 136 with Ed Barnard who made 53. But England’s middle order failed to find any other contributions and the final 10 overs of the innings saw little acceleration and wickets fallings too regularly.

West Indies coach Ottis Gibson is pleased to have the team’s batting strengthened by the return of Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle, as they bid to extend their winning run in Test cricket

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Mar-2013West Indies coach Ottis Gibson is pleased to have the team’s batting strengthened by the return of Marlon Samuels and Chris Gayle, as they bid to extend their winning run in Test cricket. West Indies will take on Zimbabwe in the first of two Tests in Barbados from Tuesday, and if they win the match they would have won five Tests in a row for the first time since 1988-89.”Having Marlon back is great news for us. The injury was unfortunate, but he has been a big player for us in the last 12 months or so, the main batsman in all formats,” Gibson said. “Chris is a quality player, we have no doubt he will perform for us. He has done it many times before and we know he will be confident going into this series.”Samuels is returning to competitive cricket for the first time in two months, after suffering a facial injury in Australia’s Big Bash League, while Gayle had asked for a break during the limited-overs leg of the Zimbabwe series.Talking about the make-up of the squad, Gibson pointed out that since the batting line-up is a “settled” one, there is no place for veteran batsman Ramnaresh Sarwan at the moment despite the form he showed in the second ODI against Zimbabwe. He is being given time to prove – through his domestic form – that he deserves a spot in the Test line-up, Gibson said. “If you look at the batting at the moment, the line up seems to be settled. We played five batsmen in Bangladesh and made a lot of runs. It’s hard to fit him in but at the same time we know his quality.”At the moment, for him, it’s just about getting back and getting confident, and once he gets used to getting runs again in regional cricket … I would like to think that once there is a spot available, he would find himself in that spot.”Sarwan made a comeback for West Indies in February, on the limited-overs tour of Australia, after 18 months away due to issues with the team management.Offspinner Sunil Narine – who had poor returns on West Indies’ previous Test assignment, with three wickets in two matches against Bangladesh at 114.33 – was rested rather than dropped from the Test squad, according to Gibson. Narine still had a part to play across formats, he said. “I think he [Narine] was [considered for selection]. The selectors, from my understanding, thought that since he has come into international cricket, he has played every format and they wanted to give him a break more from the intensity of cricket, to let him get back and start to enjoy his cricket a little bit more.”He is playing for Trinidad and obviously enjoying it, getting wickets and stuff like that. He is young to international cricket and I’m sure he is somebody that has a huge part to play for us in all formats.”Captain Darren Sammy said he was confident his team had the “upper hand” going into this Test series. “We’re ready, our preparations have been spot on,” he said. “We have been very professional and disciplined in all we have done so far.”The guys are coming in from playing [domestic] four-day cricket so everyone should be settled and ready to take on the Zimbabweans. Kemar [Roach] and Marlon [Samuels] did not play in the last round of the Regional Four-Day tournament, but they played for the Sagicor High Performance Centre over the weekend [in Zimbabwe’s warm-up game] so they got in their preparation as well.”

Jordan Silk’s hard-fought century, followed by a counter-attack from Luke Butterworth and James Faulkner, helped Tasmania post a stiff total

The Report by Daniel Brettig23-Mar-2013
ScorecardLuke Butterworth’s counterattacking 86 helped Tasmania post a strong total against Queensland on the second day•Getty Images

Over a seven-year career for Tasmania, in which he has consistently shown himself to be an apt performer on the big occasions, Luke Butterworth’s most notable reward has been a solitary Australia A tour to Zimbabwe in 2011. As he compiled 86 on day two of the Sheffield Shield final against Queensland, his third major score in four competition deciders, it was difficult not to wonder whether Butterworth deserved better.Until Butterworth walked to the wicket at the fall of the seventh wicket for a mere 269,
Tasmania’s first innings was marked more by the inert than the expansive. His fluent counterattack, in the company of James Faulkner, gave the Tigers a healthy total, and enough time before the close for Ben Hilfenhaus to surge through Greg Moller’s crooked defence with the first ball of the Bulls’ innings.Jordan Silk had reached a stolid 108 in the morning, and George Bailey managed 42, but it was not until Butterworth joined Faulkner that the Tigers were able to wriggle free of a Queensland attack that maintained a disciplined line throughout. Butterworth has enjoyed the most fruitful bowling season of his career, and his languid batting has always seemed to find traction at key moments for the Tigers. Anything short of a berth on the Australia A tour to England that precedes the Ashes this year would be an injustice.Ponting and Silk resumed with intent to press on from the funereal progress that had typified the first day. However Ponting’s contribution was to extend no further than a couple more crisp strokes, as James Hopes’ stumps-seeking swinger had the 38-year-old Tasmanian overbalancing and lbw.Silk punched and prodded to his century, a 341-ball triumph of application over adventure that maintained a decidedly promising start to his first-class career. There was to be some irony to Silk’s exit eight runs later, for he perished caught in the deep to a top-edged pull shot. Both the aggression and the error on his most reliable source of runs, were uncharacteristic of his innings.Bailey was playing neatly in search of only his second half-century in a personally dire Shield season, but he was to lose another two partners soon after lunch. Jon Wells could do little with an outswinger from the persevering Harris, touching it through for Chris Hartley to claim a low catch. In the bowler’s next over Tim Paine did less well, as a ball angled back and skidded through, with umpire Simon Fry judging it would have hit leg stump.These wobbles became more pronounced when Bailey himself departed, pinned in front by Cameron Gannon’s inswing for another lbw. Faulkner and Butterworth were thus charged with sustaining an innings that was in serious danger of petering out in mediocre fashion.So well did they take to this task that the stand reaped 125 in good time, tiring Queensland’s bowlers, and lifting Tasmania’s total into territory more commensurate with the time that its accumulation had occupied. Usually a more extroverted batsman, Faulkner played within himself, leaving Butterworth the stage on which to demonstrate his now commonplace ease in a final.Demonstrating a vast array of shots and an elegant approach, Butterworth lit up the afternoon. There were drives, cuts, pull shots and glances, while he had no qualms about advancing to strike Nathan Hauritz boldly down the ground. A century beckoned, but Faulkner was undone by a Hopes delivery that stayed low. Butterworth then touched a ball angled across him to caught behind by Hartley.Hopes claimed a fourth for the innings when Hilfenhaus was ruled lbw, but the wickets succeeded mainly in leaving the Bulls an awkward session up to stumps that was to prove almost as damaging as Butterworth’s batting had been.

Brendan Taylor has given Zimbabwean Test cricket a pass mark after their drawn series against Bangladesh

Firdose Moonda in Harare29-Apr-2013Brendan Taylor has given Zimbabwean Test cricket a pass mark after their drawn series against Bangladesh. Although their dominance in the first game put the hosts in position to claim a series victory and set them up to win consecutive Tests for the first time in 12 years, Taylor regarded it as achievement enough that they shared honours overall.”We’ve gone forward, especially considering the way it went for us in West Indies,” Taylor said. “It does take character to win Test matches and we leveled it. It’s not the end of the world that we didn’t win. There’s still plenty of cricket to play and hopefully we will keep getting better.”Zimbabwe were blanked across all formats in West Indies a month ago but it was their Test defeats which stung hardest. Their batsmen were outspun by Shane Shillingford and Marlon Samuels and made to look like amateurs.Zimbabwe were desperate to overturn that and do some damage control to their reputations. Twin centuries from Taylor and a hundred from Hamilton Masakadza went some way to doing that but overall, Zimbabwe’s batting was what let them down. Their top order proved fragile and dented their hopes of saving the second Test, which Taylor said were still alive overnight.”We thought batting out the day was the more realistic goal. We felt if we could bat around Hamilton and take it hour by hour then we could get there,” he said. “But there were too many soft dismissals.”Taylor put Zimbabwe’s batting inconsistencies down to mindset rather than inability. “It’s our mental process. We practice really hard and technically we are ok but guys do work for a good solid hour and then find ways to get out. If we can all dig deep and find our ways to be a little sharper that will be good.”Despite the rest of the line-up making similar mistakes, Taylor was pleased with the progress they made overall. “Our middle order is looking strong again,” he said. Malcolm Waller scored a half-century, Graeme Cremer notched up his highest Test score and Keegan Meth and Shingi Masakadza are proving handy lower-order all-rounders.Taylor was particularly impressed with the showing of Shingi, the younger brother of Hamilton. He was Zimbabwe’s leading wicket-taker with 10 at an average of 16.80, accepted the job of nightwatchman and performed it well and contributed with the bat in his regular position as well. “I am very pleased with the way he bowled. He is one hell of a trier,” Taylor said. “He has got such a big heart and he never stops giving his best. If we had eleven of him, we’d have a pretty good side.”But not even Shingi could bowl as well as Zimbabwe hoped when they put Bangladesh in to bat on what they thought was a lively surface. It turned out to be a far tamer strip than the one on which the first Test was played on the same ground and the Bangladesh batsmen settled on it quickly.Taylor stood by his decision to try and make first use of it. “There was definitely enough for the fast bowlers. We didn’t hit the right areas consistently enough and we allowed them to score freely. It’s hard to come back from that. We didn’t back up anyone. Keegan Meth contained nicely from one end but Kyle Jarvis was trying too hard and we let the pressure go from the other end. Kyle still has a long to go as a bowler and I’m sure he will bounce back stronger.”Taylor thought the same of his whole team, who will have a healthy dose of Test cricket to measure themselves against this year, with incoming tours against Sri Lanka and Pakistan scheduled. “We knew we didn’t help ourselves in this match but we are growing,” Taylor said. “Bangladesh probably won two-thirds of the match and we had too many bad sessions. We were just outplayed but we will get better.”

If Sri Lanka are to go far in the Champions Trophy, minus their trademark bowling mystique, a lot will depend on Nuwan Kulasekara hitting form

Andrew Fidel Fernando in Cardiff06-Jun-2013In each of their recent major-tournament campaigns, Sri Lanka’s greatest strength has lain in their attack. Diverse, persistent, occasionally vicious, opposition batsmen have been unsettled by unorthodoxy and discipline in equal parts. As the team prepares for its Champions Trophy opener in Cardiff, though, they will know they are light on mystique in this tournament.Lasith Malinga’s round-arm remains an oddity, but it is hardly unfamiliar now, given the amount of limited-overs cricket he plays around the world. Sachithra Senanayake also has a growing bag of slow-bowling tricks, but the two men Sri Lanka left out – Ajantha Mendis and Akila Dananjaya – are far more enigmatic. The remainder of Sri Lanka’s bowling options, from nagging right-arm seamers Angelo Mathews and Thisara Perera, to Rangana Herath’s left-arm orthodox, pose challenges opponents have encountered before.And, by almost any standard, Nuwan Kulasekara is a run-of-the-mill bowler. Rarely exceeding 130kph, with a whippy action and a commitment to line, length and movement above all else, he has often been the dependable, but unremarkable cog in Sri Lanka’s attack. While team-mates gambled for wickets, Kulasekara’s role was to hold one end down. For a while, he was so good at it – he became the top-ranked ODI bowler in 2008.In 2013, though, Kulasekara finds his mandate altered significantly. Now a senior in the bowling unit, he has been called on to pick up the slack where Malinga can no longer be as effective. In the years before a new ball was used at each end, Sri Lanka had built a reputation as one of the best death-bowling outfits in the world, thanks to their spearhead’s ability to use reverse-swing. But a shift in the rules has brought a change in Malinga’s fortunes and even he admits his figures have suffered in the last 18 months. With the ball swinging conventionally for longer, however, the new rule suits Kulasekara’s game just fine.”The rule affects different people in different ways,” Kulasekara said. “I think there is more pressure on me now, to get wickets. Lasith is probably the best limited-overs bowler in the world, so if batsmen try to play him safely and attack me, I have a chance to get wickets. My strength is to swing the ball, so I’m expected to get those early breakthroughs.”In the past year, Kulasekara has added an away-seamer to his repertoire, to go with a straighter one and his stock ball, the inswinger. He had been in outstanding form in Australia early in the year, when he annihilated the Australia top order on a hot, muggy Brisbane day, taking 5 for 22, but his record in colder climes has not befit his ability. In five matches in England he only has a single victim to his name, and although he went wicketless in both Sri Lanka’s warm-up matches, he remains hopeful he can be as impactful in the Champions Trophy as he has increasingly been at home.”I haven’t been getting the ball out as well as I would have liked, and I’m not at my best when it comes to rhythm. That happens from time to time. We had got slow pitches in Birmingham [in the warm-up games] – the ball didn’t swing a lot. Sometimes when it is this cold, it doesn’t swing as well, so I haven’t been able to make the ball do what I hoped for. We have a few more practice sessions before the tournament, and I’ll be working hard with Chaminda Vaas to work those issues out and get back to my top rhythm. He has a lot of experience here, so I will have a good chat to him and try to correct it.”While Kulasekara has failed to find his best in England, Sri Lanka’s next-best swing bowler has prospered in the practice matches. Shaminda Eranga, who has previously impressed in England for the A team, took two wickets in each match despite not having the use of the new ball. With another right-arm seamer, Dilhara Lokuhettige, also in the squad, there is heat on Kulasekara to rediscover form quickly, but he has also enjoyed being part of a six-man pace unit on tour – an oddity for a Sri Lankan squad.”Actually we fast bowlers get together and try to figure out a collective strategy. With the new fielding restrictions, it’s not easy to bowl at the end of an innings. We all have different strengths, so we have ideas about what fields should be set and where to bowl, and we’re learning from each other and the bowling coach.”Sri Lanka lost both practice matches largely due to the bowlers’ indiscipline on flat Edgbaston wickets – even when the batsmen set up a massive total in the first game against India. Sri Lanka do not play any group matches in Birmingham, and Kulasekara feels the match results are not indicative of the team’s chances in the tournament.”Who wins or loses doesn’t really have a big effect. It’s a practice match so we’re changing bowlers around, rather than sticking to a plan, and when our batsmen are going well we retire them and so on. We tried to give everyone a chance, but there will be a big shift in our approach in the actual matches. We learnt a lot from these games, but the results won’t mean much.”Kulasekara has been a fixture in Sri Lanka’s ODI side, and it is unlikely two poor practice matches will change that, at least as far as their opening game against New Zealand. If the swing that has eluded his fingers thus far can define his cricket again, Sri Lanka will once more feel they have an attack that can carry them far into the tournament, unorthodox or not.

Chris Adams has been sacked as Surrey’s team director while his assistant, Ian Salisbury, has also lost his job

ESPNcricinfo staff17-Jun-2013Chris Adams has been sacked as Surrey’s team director while his assistant, Ian Salisbury, has also lost his job as the club launch a radical shake-up following their poor start to 2013 season.Adams joined Surrey amid much fanfare in 2008 but under his leadership there has only been one piece of silverware – the CB40 in 2011.He has presided over the controversial approach of signing a host of ageing players to try and bring some stability to the club following the traumatic events of 2012 in which Tom Maynard, Surrey’s England Lions batsman, lost his life in a tube accident, the captain, Rory Hamilton-Brown sought a fresh start at Sussex and there was criticism of behavioural standards in the squad.It was an exhausting task for Adams to hold the club together during one of the most difficult periods in its history.Surrey’s recent Championship match against Sussex, at Arundel, was their sixth draw of the season and they are seventh in the Division One table just eight points clear of the relegation spots. In the YB40 the team are second bottom in Group B, only ahead of Scotland, with two wins.The county made a host of big-name signings over the winter, notably Graeme Smith and Ricky Ponting, but Smith was forced to leave due to an ankle injury.Alec Stewart, the former England captain, will take temporary charge of the first-team while Stuart Barnes, the bowling coach, will be given an expanded role in the weeks ahead. Stewart’s first match will be the County Championship game against Yorkshire which is also set to be Kevin Pietersen’s return to action following his knee injury.Richard Gould, Surrey’s chief executive, said: “Chris and Ian have worked really hard for the club and we appreciate their endeavours during the past five seasons. The club has decided it is now time to make a change in order to progress further.”

Asad Baig’s allround efforts helped Habib Bank Limited to a six-wicket victory over State Bank of Pakistan in a low scoring encounter

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Jul-2013
ScorecardAsad Baig bowled miserly and led from the front with the bat•PCB

Asad Baig’s allround efforts helped Habib Bank Limited beat State Bank of Pakistan by six wickets in a low-scoring encounter in Karachi. SBP won the toss and elected to bat, but got off to a horror start, losing their first three wickets for just seven runs on the board, thanks to a double-strike from opening fast bowler Ehsan Adil.A 37-run stand for the fourth wicket looked promising, but Rameez Raja was caught by Kamran Hussain off Baig’s bowling for 26. SBP would lose two more wickets with the score on 68, before finding themselves in the unenviable position of 79 for 7. Rizwan Haider and Hasan Mahmood fought valiantly to push the team to 106 for 7. Adil and Baig finished with two wickets a piece.Despite a double-wicket blow in the second over rendering Habib Bank 5 for 2, the chase was largely uneventful. Baig stroked a 21-ball 27 to give impetus to the innings, while Behram Khan supported him ably in their 33-run partnership for the third wicket. Hasan Raza later joined Behram in a 48-run stand to effectively take the game away from SBP. Humayun Farhat hit an 8-ball 20, including two sixes at the end to finish off the game in the 18th over, handing Habib Bank a six-wicket victory.