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ESPNcricinfo previews the third Investec Ashes Test at Old Trafford

Daniel Brettig31-Jul-2013

Match facts

August 1-5, Old Trafford
Start time 1100 (1000 GMT)Kevin Pietersen’s chances of participation in the third Test remain clouded•PA Photos

Big Picture

Over 16 years of discontent between 1989 and 2005, England found themselves 2-0 down after as many Ashes matches no fewer than six times. The lead-in to the third Test was invariably accompanied by all manner of introspection within the team and public ridicule without, while selections tended to lean towards changing the combinations that did not work in the first two matches, carrying the air of last-chance for the selectors and the captain if not the players themselves. Something else about those six occasions is also noteworthy – while often England produced an improved display, not once did they ever actually win the third match, usually giving up the urn as a result.This unpalatable scenario is now Australia’s cross to bear, following a tight result at Trent Bridge and a decidedly loose one at Lord’s. There will be changes to the team, most likely three as David Warner returns after doing penance in South Africa while bowlers Nathan Lyon and Mitchell Starc are recalled having not done too much wrong to be dropped in the first place. Of greater import for Australia, however, is getting the best out of the few batsmen they know to be of high quality. Michael Clarke has batted away speculation that he has entered the last six months of his international career but has so far been unable to do likewise to England’s bowlers, while Shane Watson’s threatening starts have remained just that from the moment James Anderson and co have managed to narrow their aim onto his front pad. Chris Rogers must lift too, having been called into the team late in his career simply to churn out hundreds – nothing more and nothing less.As for England, a draw will be sufficient to retain the Ashes, but Anderson’s words last week provided ample evidence that the hosts are seeking something grander, a 5-0 margin of victory to be precise. Kevin Pietersen’s fitness has been a source of minor irritation to England’s planning, but in James Taylor they have a reserve batsman capable of playing the long innings that will further wear down an Australian bowling attack that has toiled manfully against the creeping realisation that no matter what they bowl their opponents out for, it will not be enough. Nevertheless, England cannot expect to be continually bailed out by Ian Bell following the loss of trios of early wickets, and so Alastair Cook will be particularly keen to score the runs that ensure the proceedings at Old Trafford carry on in the same lopsided manner in which they did at Lord’s.

Form guide

England: WWWWD
Australia: LLLLL

Players to watch

Right now it feels strange and distant to consider that for years Graeme Swann considered Australia to be his toughest opponents. The impression was created by some indifferent days against the likes of Michael Hussey and Michael Clarke in 2009 and 2010-11, but the former’s retirement has given Swann some greater room to flourish against batsmen with very little confidence against the spinning ball. Now, at Old Trafford, the scene of Jim Laker’s 19 wickets in 1956, Swann’s threat looms larger than ever for the tourists.Rather than playing against Sussex, Shane Watson spent a week in London, training specifically to work on his susceptibility against the ball angling back into his pads for an lbw shout. As his opening partner Chris Rogers stated, Watson has the potential to do more damage to England’s bowlers than any other member of the Australian batting line-up, and if he has managed to smooth out this long-standing technical kink he may find Manchester very much to his liking.

Team news

Kevin Pietersen has not quite assuaged all doubts about his fitness, following a calf strain, by training in Manchester, and if he is not deemed ready James Taylor will slot into the batting order. Monty Panesar is on hand with his left-arm spin, but Tim Bresnan’s strong showing on a dry surface at Lord’s plus his extra batting heft make a change less likely.England (probable) 1 Alastair Cook (capt), 2 Joe Root, 3 Jonathan Trott, 4 Kevin Pietersen, 5 Ian Bell, 6 Jonny Bairstow, 7 Matt Prior (wk), 8 Tim Bresnan, 9 Stuart Broad, 10 Graeme Swann, 11 James AndersonDavid Warner appears a likely inclusion for Australia following his century for Australia A in South Africa, but the question is for who and where in the batting order. Phillip Hughes is under some pressure following a trio of low scores after his 81* in Nottingham, and Steve Smith is nursing a sore back. Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon are probable bowling inclusions for the injured James Pattinson and Ashton Agar.Australia (probable) 1 Shane Watson, 2 Chris Rogers, 3 Usman Khawaja, 4 Michael Clarke (capt), 5 Steve Smith, 6 David Warner, 7 Brad Haddin (wk), 8 Peter Siddle, 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Ryan Harris, 11 Nathan Lyon.

Pitch and conditions

The tourists have been greeted by another very dry surface that already shows evidence of cracking, alongside a few curious “burnt” patches. It is quite hard underfoot however, so there will be some bounce on offer to shotmakers and pace bowlers alike. Intermittent rain is forecast for the week.

Stats and trivia

• Don Bradman’s 1936-37 Australian side are the only team ever to have overcome a 2-0 deficit after as many Tests to win the Ashes
• An Australia defeat will hand the tourists seven consecutive Test match losses for the first time since 1888
• Stuart Broad needs one more wicket to become the 15th England bowler to claim 200 in their Test career

Quotes

“As soon as you become distracted you can come unstuck. Yes, we’ve earned the right to be in a pretty good situation in the series. But the series is still alive.”
“I was part of the team that won 16 in a row, so I guess I’m seeing both sides. The reality is you want to win every time you walk out onto the field. But you have to perform at your best to do that. If we don’t and we lose this Test match, we’ll hold a record that I certainly won’t be proud of and I don’t think anyone in the current team will be proud of.”

Jamaica Tallawahs beat Guyana Amazon Warriors by seven wickets to win the first Caribbean Premier League

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Aug-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsChris Gayle guided Jamaica to the title with a well-paced innings•Getty Images

In the lead-up to the final against Jamaica Tallawahs, Curtly Ambrose, assistant coach of the Guyana Amazon Warriors, spoke about the importance of bowlers, specially Krishmar Santokie, Lasith Malinga and Sunil Narine. Santokie had had an impressive tournament, emerging as the leading wicket-taker with 16 at an average of 13.68.The ending to his good run, however, went a little awry. Against Jamaica, in the final, the seamer was called on to bowl the 17th over, his last of the match. His last three overs had yielded an economical 11 runs. Jamaica needed 26 off 24 with seven wickets in hand and Guyana had a sliver of a chance at victory, after their batsmen had managed 128 for 5.Guyana’s defence of a middling total fell apart in that over. Santokie started with two wides down the leg side, one of which raced past the wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin to the boundary. Two balls later, he bowled another wide outside off stump, and followed that up with three more down the legside. By the time he was done with the 11-ball over, Santokie had conceded 20 runs, 11 of those in wides. It took Chris Gayle and Andre Russell a mere three more balls to knock off the remaining six runs and help Jamaica claim the title.Santokie’s nightmarish over aside, Guyana had managed to stay in the chase for most of the innings. At the end of the 13th over, Jamaica were 58 runs adrift before Chris Gayle and Andre Russell took 20 runs of a Christopher Barnwell over to bring a seemingly ungainly chase under control.Gayle played a steady innings, eschewing risks but hitting the occasional boundary to keep the asking rate in check. He watched from the other end as Chadwick Walton lost his wicket after some expansive shots in the third over and Kumar Sangakkara brought an end to his stint at the crease with a slog off Barnwell. Gayle finished with a well-paced 47 off 48 balls, with his 62-run fourth-wicket stand with Russell at the end taking his side to victory.Earlier, Jamaica’s bowlers did a good job of restricting the Guyana batsmen before James Franklin played an aggressive knock of 17 off 9 to take Guyana from 108 for 5 in the 19th over to 128 for 5. Pacer David Bernard struck in successive overs to dismiss opener William Perkins and Tillakaratne Dilshan, before Lendl Simmons and Ramdin steadied the innings with a third-wicket stand of 52. The pair scored the runs in good time, playing Muttiah Muralitharan with caution but going after Nikita Miller and Chris Gayle.Ramdin smacked a six and a four off Russell in the 14th but just when their innings seemed to be gathering some momentum, Miller had Simmons caught in the deep by Sangakkara for 40. A couple of overs later, Sunil Narine, promoted ahead of Sarwan and James Franklin, fell for 9. Two deliveries later, Ramdin was dismissed by Gayle for 29. Franklin’s last-over hits to the boundary ensured that Guyana had a respectable total to defend.Gayle was awarded the Man-of-the-Match award for his innings, while Santokie was named Man of the Series.The CPL result, however, will have no bearing on West Indies’ representation in the 2013 Champions League T20, as Trinidad & Tobago have already qualified for the tournament by winning the country’s domestic T20 competition earlier this year.

Derbyshire were able to begin planning for next season when their relegation to Division Two was confirmed on the stroke of noon

Jon Culley at Derby26-Sep-2013
ScorecardKeith Barker collected six wickets in the match as Warwickshire confirmed Derbyshire’s relegation•Getty Images

Derbyshire were able to begin planning for next season when their relegation to Division Two was confirmed on the stroke of noon. Tony Palladino, in pain from a blow on the finger inflicted by the Warwickshire bowler Boyd Rankin, signalled to his last-wicket partner, Mark Footitt, that he could not continue.His retirement hurt confirmed Derbyshire’s dismissal for 103 in the first innings, which meant that even were they to somehow bring about the most unlikely of victories, from 288 behind, they would not have enough points to overtake Nottinghamshire or Somerset, irrespective of the result at Trent Bridge.Shivnarine Chanderpaul made 52, preserving the stand with Tom Poynton for the sixth wicket, unbroken overnight, for 55 minutes before he was leg-before to Keith Barker, against whom he had hit nine of his 10 boundaries, appearing to tuck his bat behind his pad a little.The first innings subsided in a little over six overs after that. In the circumstances, even with professional self-respect at stake, it was hardly a surprise that their motivation for the follow-on was not as it might have been.It didn’t help that they were facing a quartet of Warwickshire pace bowlers – including one just named in England’s winter tour plans, two who should have been and one who believes he may one day earn a call up – who were themselves fully committed, with the possibility still alive that they might finish third in the Championship table.Derbyshire’s fate was sealed when Palladino wandered off, examining the ring finger on his left hand that was later confirmed as broken. By 2.50pm, bowled out for 120 in 29.1 overs second time around, they had lost the match.Jeetan Patel claimed the last two wickets in the only seven balls he bowled in the match, applying the coup de grace by bowling Poynton and Tim Groenewald to end some brief late resistance, but it was the skill of the seamers in helpful conditions that set the sides so far apart.Barker finished with 1 for 19 to go with his 5 for 55 in the first innings, raising the left-armer’s tally of wickets for the season to 46 despite missing five matches through injury. His omission from any level of England’s winter programme is as puzzling as that of his team-mate Chris Woakes, who added 3 for 36 to his classy unbeaten 152 with the bat.There were two wickets for Boyd Rankin, who will be with England in Australia and gave evidence of the pace and bounce he will be eager to unleash from November onwards, and one for the other member of the pace quartet, Maurice Chambers, who went to the West Indies with England Lions in 2011 and hopes to reinvigorate his international career.Chambers, who has spent the last month on loan at Edgbaston after being released by Essex, will be offered the chance to follow Varun Chopra and Chris Wright in making the move from Chelmsford permanent, Warwickshire’s director of cricket, Dougie Brown, confirmed. “He has come in and taken 14 or 15 wickets in three or four games and is somebody ready made to play first-team cricket and would be an outstanding addition,” Brown said.”Hopefully the evidence we have of turning guys’ careers around – Wright and maybe Chopra being two examples – to the extent of knocking on England doors, will be something he sees as quite enticing.”Wayne Madsen, the Derbyshire captain, would be another player coveted by Division One clubs were he not under contract for another two years. Relegation was a bittersweet experience for him, given that he walked back to the pavilion for the final time as the leading run scorer in the division, with 1221 runs.”It has been the best season I have had personally and to get relegated at the same time is a tough pill to swallow,” he said.”Compared with the first 10 games we played, by the last six we have competed a lot better, but it was too little too late. At the start of the season, we felt three games would be enough to keep us up, but we lost too many games, missing out on the points for draws and the bonus points we might have accumulated.”We gave the senior players who were left out of the side in the second half of the season a good chance to get the runs and take the wickets and while there will always be times for every player where they find things a bit difficult, with us it was just too many at the same time.”We found there were patches in games where we let out guard down a little bit and would have bad sessions that cost us games. In Division Two you can sometimes get away with it and get back into a game but Division One sides don’t let you off.”Relegation will prompt interest in head coach Karl Krikken’s future, too, but Derbyshire’s chairman, Chris Grant, said the 44-year-old former academy director is safe.”Krik is on a long-term contract,” Grant said. “We will have a meeting on the 17th October when we will reflect on the season but I see Karl being part of this club in the long-term.”We have a long way to travel to become a sustainable first division county and if we keep chopping and changing in terms of direction we’re not going to make any progress, so we have to hold our nerve, go back to Division Two, take some lessons from Division One and rebuild.”But I’m certain Karl will be here, and the coaching staff, with my support.”

Delhi Daredevils have not given the Feroz Shah Kotla a lot to crow about in 2015, but in their final home match at this ground in the IPL group stage, they gutted Kings XI Punjab’s top order, then blew past the opposition’s 118 for 8 by nine wickets

The Report by Andrew Fidel Fernando01-May-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details4:49

O’Brien: One of the most insipid performances in a T20 match

Delhi Daredevils have not given the Feroz Shah Kotla a lot to crow about in 2015, but in their final home match at this ground in the IPL group stage, they gutted Kings XI Punjab’s top order, then blew past the opposition’s 118 for 8 by nine wickets. Zaheer Khan claimed a wicket in each of his first two overs to kick Daredevil’s most dominant performance of the season into gear, while JP Duminy and Nathan Coulter-Nile chipped in with scalps of their own. After 3.3 overs, Kings XI were 10 for 4 – their chance of rising above last place already on the rocks.Coulter-Nile returned to terrorise the middle-order later on, finishing with figures of 4 for 20. Daredevils’ openers Mayank Agarwal and Shreyas Iyer struck casual half-centuries in the reply, and the hosts raced home inside 14 overs.Zaheer had not played competitive cricket in almost a year, following the strain sustained in his back at last year’s IPL, but his impact at the Kotla was nearly immediate. Virender Sehwag was coming back to the Kings XI side himself, after a one-match layoff, but could find no end to his poor stretch of form against his former India team-mate. Sehwag aimed to push his second ball from Zaheer through the covers, but as the ball seamed away a touch, could only get a thick outside edge to it. Mathews took the catch at a close-in point.Duminy opened the bowling from the other end, and hit Shaun Marsh in front of the stumps with a slider first ball. Manan Vohra tried to blast Kings XI out of the mire, but a Zaheer short ball next over put paid to those ambitions, catching the advancing batsman’s outside edge en route to the keeper. Coulter-Nile bowled sharp outswing in his first spell. His reward was the wicket of Wriddhiman Saha, who drove loosely at one of those balls, and presented another catch to the keeper.David Miller and George Bailey threatened a recovery, before Bailey was out missing a sweep off Amit Mishra in the eighth over, to embed Kings XI in misery at 37 for 5. It wasn’t until Miller and Akshar Patel were joined at the crease that some semblance of a partnership materialised for the visitors. Those two shelved the more aggressive tenets of their game in the 59-run stand that gave Kings XI something to bowl at. Coulter-Nile had them both caught in the deep in the 19th over.From the second over, Delhi’s chase seemed a cakewalk. Shardul Thakur was wayward in his first IPL over, feeding Iyer two short wide balls to be cut over third man off successive deliveries. When he attempted to correct his line, he went too far the other way, first delivering a leg-side wide, then being clipped to the fence off the pads. There were quiet overs, and a tight spell from Sandeep Sharma, but the batsmen were largely untroubled in pursuit of such a meagre score. Iyer slammed the wayward Thisara Perera to the square-leg fence to reach his half-century in 38 balls, but he was caught at deep midwicket next over. Agarwal remained unbeaten with 52 from 40.

James Whitaker will have gleaned little that he did not already know from his visit to New Road. Ian Bell made a century, the 50th of his career in first-class cricket, and Worcestershire collapsed miserably to an innings defeat, which is sadly not a rar

Jon Culley at New Road15-Jun-2015
ScorecardBoyd Rankin helped rip through Worcestershire•Getty Images

James Whitaker will have gleaned little that he did not already know from his visit to New Road. Ian Bell made a century, the 50th of his career in first-class cricket, and Worcestershire collapsed miserably to an innings defeat, which is sadly not a rarity either.What the national selector wanted to see, you supposed, was a little more of Moeen Ali bowling, given that the purpose of the England offspinner’s return to red-ball county duty was to get in some overs. Yet Moeen’s ration, curiously, in a Warwickshire first innings spanning almost 92 overs was limited to six.This might look like an odd state of affairs, although Daryl Mitchell, the Worcestershire captain, should be cut some slack. He had Saaed Ajmal back for his first Championship match of the season, and having reaped the benefits of the Pakistan offspinner’s 63 wickets in nine matches last year he was hardly likely to ask him to play second fiddle to Moeen.In the event, Ajmal bowled 17 overs and conceded 82 runs without taking a wicket, which raised immediate questions over whether the powers he could summon up before his action was deemed illegal have gone. The remodelled version appeared to hold no mysteries for anyone.Moeen might have been given another chance in the second innings but none was required after Worcestershire were bowled out inside 33 overs for 80, the lowest all out total for the county since the match against Warwickshire in 2012 when they were dismissed for 60 and Warwickshire clinched the title.Bell, who made 111 before he was leg before to Jack Shantry as one of five wickets for the left-arm seamer, looked in good order. To say he has been dropped by England is not really accurate. His omission from the one-day series is more a case of allowing him a break from the treadmill after a relatively lean run of form in the Test side and to suggest he is fighting for a place in the Ashes series is an exaggeration.In any event, this was an impressive statement of his wellbeing. The way this match concluded may give the impression of a one-sided contest but Warwickshire had been 35 for 4 on Sunday evening before Bell had settled in and on the second morning a difficult opening session had to be negotiated.Bell was hit on the hand by one that jumped off a length from Shantry, who had Tim Ambrose caught behind by Ben Cox, standing up, and should have seen off Rikki Clarke by the same method when the allrounder was on 9, only for the wicketkeeper to let the ball slip through his hands. Clarke had a second escape before lunch, dropped at second slip off Charlie Morris. But Bell, a model of concentration and exemplary footwork, completed his hundred from 181 balls with three to midwicket off Ajmal in the fourth over after lunch.The evidence is that returning to county cricket usually brings Bell back into form. In his last nine appearances for Warwickshire, he has not failed to make at least a half-century in one innings and four times gone on to make a hundred, something he acknowledged afterwards.”Yes it has been a tricky few Tests but it is not that long ago that I made my last hundred for England and I hope to be part of that for a while to come,” he said. “I have been through highs and lows with England and you go in and out of form and it is nice sometimes to step away from the spotlight, work hard in the nets and hopefully with a bit of form I can get into the Ashes and hit the ground running.”Bell shared partnerships of 71 with Ambrose and 135 with Clarke, as Worcestershire’s optimism of Sunday evening began to dissolve. After Bell and Clarke had ensured that Warwickshire would have a lead, Keith Barker stretched it to 97 with an unbeaten 50 off 54 balls.It was a good lead on a pitch that you felt was likely to help Jeetan Patel as the sun grew in intensity but Worcestershire must have felt they could make a game of it, at least. Instead, they were abject and most of the damage was done even before the New Zealand offspinner became involved. Chris Wright, later to hold a very good catch from a steepler put up by Shantry, removed Mitchell and Richard Oliver in his second over. Moeen pulled him for six but was the bowled pushing at one from Barker and a sense of impending doom seemed to descend in that moment.Resistance was almost non-existent as Boyd Rankin bowled Tom Fell and then Alex Gidman, gaining a third success when Joe Clarke prodded at one outside off stump that Bell caught at third slip. Barker added a couple more to give him seven in the match and Patel wrapped things up, the match ending in the 33rd over of the innings when Charlie Morris hit Patel tamely to mid-off.Warwickshire, for the moment, climb to second in the table. Worcestershire, who have lost eight times in a row now to their nearest neighbours, have been competitive in several matches so far and have that win over Somerset in the bank. but they will need to shake this out of their system quickly.

India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara believes he has come back a “better player” after his stint in English county cricket with Yorkshire

Gaurav Kalra19-May-20158:30

‘Achieved what I set out to do’ – Pujara

India batsman Cheteshwar Pujara believes he has come back a “better player” after his stint in English county cricket with Yorkshire. Speaking to ESPNcricinfo after returning from England, Pujara said he “achieved the targets” he had set out for.”I could have achieved more though as I had a few 30s where I was well set and I had the chance to get a big one,” Pujara said. “A couple of decisions didn’t go my way which is a part of the game. Overall, I achieved my targets. The experience of playing in those conditions helped me learn a lot. The dressing room atmosphere was fantastic and I enjoyed playing for them.”Pujara signed up for a short-term contract with Yorkshire after being ignored at the IPL auction in February. He played four matches for the defending county champions, scoring 264 runs in six innings at an average of 52.80 with one century and a fifty. Pujara said these performances have “boosted his confidence” given the tricky early season conditions he had to encounter.”At the beginning of the season, the wickets are always difficult to bat on in the UK,” he said. “I thought getting a hundred and a fifty in those conditions was really important. I was getting starts so I was not nervous and I didn’t have issues facing seam bowling. There were a couple of really challenging wickets where batting was really difficult. I survived those conditions and it boosted my confidence.”Pujara lost his place in the playing XI for India’s last Test on the tour of Australia, in Sydney, after a string of below-par performances. Over eight Test matches in England and Australia, he scored 423 runs at an average of 26.43, going past the half-century mark just twice. He believes the stint with Yorkshire will help him get back to run-scoring ways.”When you play in challenging conditions, you learn about your technique and how to score runs in difficult situations,” he said. “So, the pressure makes you matured. Once you score runs in those conditions, you believe in yourself and you can do it any conditions. When you play Test cricket, the wickets are generally good to bat but in county cricket you get result-oriented wickets. So you bat in challenging conditions and having done that, I’m definitely a better player.”Pujara is expected to be named in the Indian Test squad for the one-off Test against Bangladesh next month. He believes there is enough time to adjust to the change in conditions he is likely to encounter from England to Bangladesh. Pujara is also keen to resume batting at the No. 3 position, where he has had most of his success at Test level.”Since I’ve been batting at No. 3, I’m comfortable there but it also depends on the team’s requirement,” he said. “If there is a need to change my batting position, I’ll bat at that position but I think the team wants me to bat at No. 3 and that is where I have performed well in the past. I think No. 3 suits me as well as the team.”The series in Bangladesh will also mark the formal start of a new era for India in Test cricket with MS Dhoni having announced his retirement from the format. Pujara believes Dhoni deserves credit for “building this team,” having identified the potential of the individuals under his wing. Pujara is confident this group can give India success in the years ahead.”Most of us have played a decent amount of cricket together,” he said. “We know each other as we have been a part of the India A teams together. This bunch knows each other well as we have played a lot of cricket together. I have no doubt that we should be able to perform well wherever we go whether – in India or abroad. MS Dhoni was trying to build this team and he knew the potential of this team. Credit has to go to him for building this team.”

A devastating start spearheaded by Shannon Gabriel and Fidel Edwards set the tone for St Lucia Zouks’ seven-wicket win over St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in Gros Islet

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Jun-2015
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsJohnson Charles made the most of an early drop to finish unbeaten on 69 in the win•CPL T20 Ltd.2015

A devastating start spearheaded by Shannon Gabriel and Fidel Edwards set the tone for St Lucia Zouks’ seven-wicket win over St Kitts & Nevis Patriots in Gros Islet. Gabriel was named Man of the Match after he combined with Edwards to reduce Patriots to 19 for 4 in the fifth over and eventually finished with a career-best 3 for 19.The Patriots won the toss and chose to bat on their CPL debut but got off to a rocky start after Evin Lewis dragged a full delivery from Edwards onto his stumps in the second over for a duck. Straight off a plane from England, Martin Guptill could only muster 14 as he flicked Gabriel to Kemar Roach at short fine leg.Orlando Peters was then dismissed for a duck next over. The Zouks made it two in two balls after Shane Dowrich began the fifth over by clipping Gabriel straight to Kyle Mayers at midwicket for two.Marlon Samuels and Devon Thomas staged a good recovery and put on 78 together for the fifth wicket. The partnership had produced 38 with Samuels on 20 when he hoicked Mayers into the air at deep midwicket but a sprinting Darren Sammy failed to hang onto to the catch despite a diving effort. Samuels went on to make an unbeaten 52 and added a further 50 together with Sohail Tanvir for the seventh wicket as a late surge took them to 149.The Zouks got off to a cautious start with just two runs off the first over bowled by Tanvir. Andre Fletcher ramped up the pace in the second by cracking Sheldon Cottrell for two fours and a six wide of long on in an 18-run stanza. Johnson Charles then got in on the act in the third with a four and six off Sohail Tanvir to make it 33 for 0 after three before another three boundaries were taken off Shahid Afridi in the following over. By the end of the Powerplay, the Zouks were cruising at 61 for 0.The lone bright spot in the field for the Patriots was CPL debutant Nikhil Dutta. The 20-year-old Canadian offspinner came on in the seventh over and should have struck with his third ball when Charles, on 20, went for a mighty heave across the line and produced a top edge to short third man where Cottrell fluffed a straightforward chance. Dutta was denied the wicket of Charles again in the ninth over, this time on 29, after he walked across his stumps and was pinned in front after missing another slog but a shout for leg before was turned down.Dutta’s luck finally turned two balls later when Fletcher mistimed a reverse sweep and the ball ballooned in the air off his gloves for a simple catch taken behind the stumps by Thomas to end the opening stand at 81 and Fletcher’s innings for 48. Dutta came back on for a second spell in the 13th over as part of an entertaining duel with Kevin Pietersen.Two overs prior, Pietersen looked to be settled after tonking Shahid Afridi over midwicket for six, but Pietersen had trouble picking the mystery spinner Dutta in his first three deliveries before driving Dutta over cover. Dutta responded by dragging the length back slightly with one that turned sharply to bowl Pietersen through the gate for 18.The Patriots could not find a way to dislodge Charles though and paid for the earlier reprieve. He brought up his 50 in 34 balls when he smashed Tabraiz Shamsi straight down the ground. Dutta’s first three overs went for only 15 but his figures were spoiled in the 15th over when Charles thumped two sixes over midwicket. Ross Taylor finished the match in the following over with 26 balls to spare.

A three-wicket burst from Pragyan Ojha pegged Australia A back on day two before Peter Handscomb and Marcus Stoinis restored parity with an unbroken fifth-wicket partnership of 110 runs

Karthik Krishnaswamy in Chennai23-Jul-2015
ScorecardSteve O’Keefe ran through the lower order to finish with figures of 6 for 82•K Sivaraman

A three-wicket burst from Pragyan Ojha pegged Australia A back on day two of their first four-day match against India A before Peter Handscomb and Marcus Stoinis restored parity with an unbroken partnership of 110 for the fifth wicket. At stumps, Australia A were 185 for four, 116 behind India A’s first-innings total of 301.Abhimanyu Mithun struck early for India A, getting one to shape away from a full length outside off to find Cameron Bancroft’s outside edge as he pushed hard at the ball without moving his feet. At the other end, Travis Head nicked Umesh Yadav when he slanted one across with a bit of extra bounce; the ball flew between the wicketkeeper and the diving Karun Nair at first slip.That ball apart, Umesh struggled with his direction, too often offering width or straying on to the legs of Head and Usman Khawaja, the two left-handers at the crease. The pair put on 50 in 83 balls before Head holed out to mid-off while going after Ojha. Six overs later, Khawaja was gone too, finding deep midwicket with an uppish pull off the same bowler in the last over before tea.Three balls into the final session, Ojha dismissed another left-handed batsman, getting Nic Maddinson caught at leg slip – Nair diving low to his right – when he stretched out and jabbed at him. Australia A were 75 for 4 at that point, with two new batsmen at the crease.The excited buzz of the close fielders around Handscomb and Stoinis died down gradually as the ball grew older and softer. The slowness of the surface allowed both batsmen to sit back against the spinners and watch the ball onto their bats. Mishra in particular struggled to bring the batsmen forward. He may or may not have overcome the lack of zip that has hindered him at various points through his career; on this pitch, there was no way to tell. He will hope the pitches in Sri Lanka will have a little more life in them.Handscomb was eager to use his feet when he got the opportunity, skipping nimbly down the track when he sensed some flight, and wasn’t afraid to work the spinners against the turn. A brace of late-cut doubles off Mishra in the 50th over of the innings took him to his half-century, and he celebrated the landmark by jumping down the track and clouting his next ball to the midwicket boundary. In the next two overs, Stoinis lofted Ojha for a straight six and Handscomb pulled Mishra to the midwicket boundary.It prompted the legspinner to go around the wicket and try to hit the rough outside the right-handers’ leg stump. Neither batsman looked particularly troubled and the day wound down to a quiet close.In the morning session, India A went past 300 thanks to a seventh-wicket partnership of 62 between Vijay Shankar and Amit Mishra. Australia A’s bowlers came in with the same plans that brought them success on day one – stump-to-stump line to a 5-4 leg-side field – without quite maintaining the same level of discipline. There were no rank bad balls, but the seamers occasionally bowled too straight or too full, allowing Shankar and Mishra to inch the score upwards through a steady trickle of singles square on the leg side.As lunch approached, Shankar grew more expansive, lofting the offspinner Travis Head for a six over mid-off and punching Sean Abbott to the cover boundary. He went from 42 to 46 with another back-foot punch off Abbott at the start of the second session, and in the same over drove him fiercely to the right of mid-off to bring up his half-century.He ran out of partners, though, as Steve O’Keefe broke the partnership and ran through the tail. He had Mishra lbw prodding forward and playing for the turn, while Mithun, Yadav and Ojha perished going for aggressive shots.

Karun Nair found a good time to break his rut and his first century in any format since March 2015 ensured a draw for India A, even though they had been trailing South Africa A for the bulk of the first unofficial Test in Wayanad

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Aug-2015
ScorecardFile photo: Karun Nair made his first century since March 2015•K Sivaraman

Karun Nair found a good time to break his rut and his first century in any format since March 2015 ensured a draw for India A, even though they had been trailing South Africa A for the bulk of the first unofficial Test in Wayanad.The visitors would have fancied their chances of a first victory on this tour to India when the final day began – eight wickets to get and a 371-run cushion to play with. But Nair would not budge. He struck an unbeaten 114 off 192 balls, his first ton since the triple in the Ranji Trophy final, and a couple of fifties by Vijay Shankar and captain Abhinav Mukund ensured the other end was just as plucky.There were 78.2 overs of play possible. More than enough for the South Africans to hope, considering they had already dismissed India A for 204 in the first innings. The fourth innings meant spin would be doing the bulk of the work – Dane Piedt, who completed a five-for yesterday, trundled in for 49 overs for only one wicket. Slow left-armer Keshav Maharaj got through 36 overs for two wickets. Although both men kept their economy rates under three, South Africa A would have wanted more wickets from them. Oddly, though, Wayne Parnell bowled only three overs in the innings.That they couldn’t live up to that mandate was down to a very fluent innings from Nair. He had struck only one fifty in 10 innings against both Australia A and South Africa A. He could have been bogged down, but 18 fours and a six indicates otherwise. He walked out in the 12th over of the day and was there, seeing his team to the safety of a draw. Nair strung a 148-run fifth-wicket at a run-rate of 3.4 with Vijay Shankar, who contributed a steady 74 off 142 balls.It was Vijay Shankar’s sixth first-class fifty in 14 matches, and his Tamil Nadu state-mate Mukund eased to his 23rd in 96 matches. This resolute display from India A ensured the series remains 0-0 ahead of the second match, starting from next Tuesday.

Peter Barrable, a former batsman and captain of Northern Transvaal, has died at the age of 72 on Thursday

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Sep-2015Peter Barrable, a former batsman and captain of Northern Transvaal, has died at the age of 72 on Thursday.He had played 16 first-class matches and scored 626 runs. His career began in the 1964-65 season and lasted a decade. He led Northern Transvaal for his final two years between 1972 to 1974 and had been president of the Northerns Cricket Union even as he played cricket.”Not many cricketers possess the skill and leadership qualities to represent the union as batsman, while also being given the captaincy role and simultaneously serve as president,” Titans chief executive officer Jacques Faul said. “Barrable had the skills and knowledge to lead in the board room and on the field and we are grateful for his legacy to the NCU. On behalf of the Northerns Cricket Union family I extend our deepest condolences to his family, his friends and his cricketing colleagues.”