All posts by csb10.top

ScorecardFormer England fast bowler Alex Tudor was the unlikely last-daybatting hero as Surrey lost only six wickets in three sessionsat The Oval to force an improbable draw against promotion-chasingNorthamptonshire.Surrey looked destined for a fifth straight championship defeat goinginto the fourth and final day as they teetered on 116 for 3,effectively 0 for 3 as the scores in the match were tied.Yet batting heroics from the usually aggressive Tudor, who remained atthe crease for nigh on two hours to score an unbeaten 20, coupled witha brace of dropped chances by Northamptonshire, allowed Surrey to slipaway with a draw and 10 points to Northamptonshire’s tally of 12.Needing a rearguard action to survive, Surrey made a dreadfulstart when they lost Sri Lankan batsman Arun Harinath to the sixth ballof the day from Lee Daggett, the most impressive paceman on show with figures of 3 for 39. For the second time in the match Harinath aimed an airy drive outside off to edge to the keeper and leave the hosts even deeper in trouble on 119 for 4.Matt Spriegel enjoyed an early let-off when, with his score on 3,he edged a lifter from Daggett between slip and the keeper withoutAndrew Hall or Niall O’Brien laying a glove on it.That proved a costly miss as Spriegel teamed up with Usman Afzaal (31)to add 52 in 23 precious overs for the fifth wicket as Northamptonshire’s attack struggled to get much help from a sublime Oval pitch.Afzaal eventually went just before lunch when visiting skipper NickyBoje turned one out of the foot-holds and back in to the left-hander totrap him lbw when playing back in defence.After lunch Northamptonshire blundered again when Chris Schofield’scut shot slid through the hands of Hall at slip to hit the SouthAfrican in the chest and fly to ground with Schofield on 27. But the stand came to an end when Daggett returned with the second newball to remove Spriegel and Schofield in quick succession.Having scored a backs-to-the-wall 50 from 130 balls Spriegel went lbwto a Daggett yorker that hit him full on the boot then Schofield (36)played late on another full ball that plucked out the left-hander’s offstump.After tea Monty Panesar chipped in with only his second wicket of thegame when he snared Jade Dernbach (4) lbw, but no-one coulddislodge Tudor and last-man James Anyon and, after 10 overs of trying,Northamptonshire shook hands on a draw with Tudor unbeaten afterfacing 102 balls.Surrey’s director of cricket Chris Adams said afterwards: “The energyand work-rate of the side this week has been fantastic. We knew we had a big challenge ahead of us this morning but theyprepared as well as they could by facing plenty of left-arm spin in thenets. They then went out, battled hard and got their justrewards.”

The England & Wales Cricket Board are confident Andrew Flintoff will be available for the Ashes finale at The Oval following a positive diagnosis from his knee specialist, Andy Williams. With England facing a must-win encounter at The Oval next week following their humiliating defeat in Leeds, a return to match fitness for Flintoff – in what would be his final Test match appearance before retirement – looms as a massive boost to their prospects of regaining the Ashes.”The advice received was that the swelling in his knee has significantly eased following the decision by the England management team to rest him from the last Test Match and that subject to further rest and intensive treatment, he will be available for selection for the 5th npower Ashes Test at The Brit Oval,” the ECB said in a statementThe assessment tallies with Flintoff’s own take on events, because he himself believed he could have taken part in the Headingley debacle. In his absence, England lost by an innings and 80 runs inside two-and-a-half days, but Flintoff later claimed that his participation was vetoed by the captain Andrew Strauss and the coach, Andy Flower. “He told them that he was fit enough to get through,” his agent, Chubby Chandler, told The Times, “but they didn’t want him.”News of Flintoff’s return to fitness will buoy Flower, who on Sunday warned that England could not afford another repeat of Headingley. Flintoff was only informed of his omission on the eve of the match, and the official announcement was held back until an hour before the toss, disrupting team selection. “I think we’d like to know before that,” he said. “I don’t think we’d want to leave it very late.”He wanted to play, he was desperate to play but he acknowledged that he wasn’t fully fit and he was struggling a bit, so we couldn’t play him under those circumstances,” said Flower. “If the advice is that he will be fit enough to take part as an allrounder at The Oval, then we will listen to that advice and listen to Fred’s information about his own body as well.”A fully fit Flintoff would be the perfect tonic for a beleaguered team, but Flower denied that his fitness battle was having a destabilising effect on the team, as they attempt to mount a comeback in the series, and seal the Ashes for only the second time in the past 20 years. “We’ve gone whole series waiting on his fitness, so this match is no different,” he said. “I would think we’ll get some good information back from the specialist, and also some information from him on how he feels, because there’s a good chunk of time between now and The Oval, so we’ll have a better indication.”Either way, Flower and the England think-tank are already braced for life after Flintoff, and the selection dilemmas inherent therein. “The balance of the side when you haven’t got an allrounder at 6 or 7 is always the problem, and it’s one we’re going to have to face up to because Flintoff is retiring from Test cricket,” he said. “That is a problem, because [without him] we seem light either on the batting or the bowling side. If he’s not fit for The Oval, we’ll have to make a decision on where we settle for our strong point.”England received further positive news on Monday, with James Anderson cleared of a serious hamstring injury. Anderson suffered a slight strain while running between the wickets in the first innings at Headingley, but is expected to play at The Oval.”As there is no evidence of a significant tear, it is anticipated that (Anderson) will also be available for selection for next week’s final Test,” the ECB released stated.

ScorecardIndia sealed a place in the finals of the Emerging Players Tournament after a five-wicket victory over New Zealand in Brisbane. Amit Mishra starred with the ball, while Virat Kohli continued his fine batting form to help India post a comfortable win.After New Zealand chose to bat first, both their openers were dismissed in succession by fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar, with the score on 47. The New Zealand batting was held together by BJ Watling, who scored an unbeaten 94. However, the middle order failed, as they found themselves in a spot of bother at 6 for 105 at one stage after losing four wickets for 36 runs.Watling forged an 87-run partnership with Tarun Nethula to help revive their team to a respectable score of 246. Legspinner Amit Mishra picked up four of the last five wickets to finish with 4 for 44 from his ten overs.India lost in-form opener Ajinkya Rahane for 24 and Naman Ojha fell almost immediately for a duck to leave them at 2 for 49. The captain S Badrinath then joined Kohli and the duo added 106 to put India in the driving seat. Kohli was dismissed for an aggressive 92 off 86 balls, but Badrinath ensured victory with a 52-run partnership with Manoj Tiwary for the fifth wicket. Badrinath was unbeaten on 81 and India won with more than five overs to spare.
ScorecardSouth Africa Emerging Players will meet India in the final after they demolished the Australian Institute of Sports by 183 to secure their eighth win in a row. A massive batting collapse from the Australians left them all out for an embarrassing 44 in 13.2 overs, with Cornelius de Villiers taking 5 for 15 to destroy the top order.Chasing 228 for victory, Australia were never in the hunt, losing seven wickets in the first seven overs, with de Villiers taking five, including three in his third over. Only two batsmen – Rob Quiney and Jon Holland – managed to reach double figures as Craig Alexander and Basheeru-Deen Walters offered excellent support to de Villiers.South Africa’s total was built around a 97-run third-wicket partnership between captain Vaughn van Jaarsveld and Rilee Rossouw. Both batsmen fell off successive balls in the 23rd over, though, and the innings fell away thereafter, as South Africa lost their last eight wickets for only 92. Jason Floros and Steven Smith bowled tidy spells for Australia to finish with three wickets each.South Africa now face India in the final on Saturday. Australia are out of the tournament and will play New Zealand in the third-place playoff.

Concerns surrounding Shane Watson’s Ashes availability have been partially allayed, with scans clearing him of a serious knee injury. Watson, who was ruled out of Australia’s tour-opening practice match against Sussex with knee soreness, was diagnosed with a low-grade quadriceps strain and is now in line to play against England Lions at Worcester, beginning July 1.”We expect this injury should resolve quickly,” the Australian team physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said. “His return to play will be guided by progress in the next few days.”Despite the positive prognosis, Watson will be acutely aware he has missed a prime opportunity to impress the selectors in his bid to dislodge Marcus North from the No. 6 Test position. The allrounder was desperate to begin the Ashes tour on a positive note – not least because a hamstring injury ended his 2006-07 campaign before the first Test – and his absence from the Sussex match will do little for his confidence, or that of the team.Watson was struck down with back stress fractures during the most recent Australian summer, and only made his return to competitive bowling during Australia’s truncated World Twenty20 campaign. Speaking on the eve of the tour-opening match at Hove, Australian captain Ricky Ponting hinted at the nervousness within the team over Watson’s fitness by discussing the possibility of bringing in a shadow player as cover.”We might have to do that,” Ponting said. “That has been some of the discussion this afternoon, particularly if we happen to have a batter hurt themselves in this game, we could be a little bit short. We certainly have to consider that. Shane was probably picked as the spare batter on the tour anyway, and someone who could give us some valuable overs if required, so it could get to the stage if someone happened to get hurt in this game that Shane could probably come in and play as a batsman if required anyway.”Hopefully within a couple of days he’s right to start working back up on his bowling and hopefully he plays the Worcester game at 100% fitness. For him it’s obviously a setback. He’s disappointed he wasn’t available for selection in this game. I don’t know if it harms his chances any more for the first Test match, but it’s an opportunity that has slipped out of his grasp I guess.”The Australians have thus far refrained from calling in injury cover for Watson, although Victorian coach Greg Shipperd has already commenced the campaign for Brad Hodge to be next in line. “If they choose to replace a batsman for a batsman … Hodge would be an ideal replacement for him and the right one,” Shipperd said.Watson was joined by Graham Manou, Andrew McDonald and Mitchell Johnson on the sidelines for the 12-a-side tour match against Sussex, although none of the latter three are understood to be burdened with injury. Johnson’s omission is a clear indication that selectors now view him as Australia’s premier paceman, leaving Brett Lee, Peter Siddle, Stuart Clark and Ben Hilfenhaus to fight for the remaining fast-bowling slots for the Ashes series.”We have got the right to play twelve players in this game, but that does not mean we will be using it as practice,” Ponting said. “We will be using this game to get used to the conditions. We believe this wicket will be the most like Cardiff anywhere in the country, so it will be a good opportunity for us as batsmen to get used to the pace and bounce, maybe a bit of spin.”Watson was in buoyant mood at Australia’s open media day in Hove on Monday, despite missing the day’s training session. Though admitting he had pulled up “a little stiff” the previous day, he gave a strong indication that he expected to be back bowling shortly.”I’m not exactly sure what the selectors are thinking,” Watson said. “But my bowling has been progressing really well. The Twenty20 was the first time I had bowled in a game competitively since Christmas time. The things I’ve done technically are definitely going to help me improve a lot.”

Match facts

May 21, 2009
Start time 12.30 local, (10:30 GMT)

Big Picture

With the knockout games coming up, Delhi need Virender Sehwag to rediscover his batting touch•Associated Press

One team is through to the semi-finals quite emphatically; the other has been the underperformer of the tournament and is out of contention for a place in the last four. The big picture for the tournament won’t change regardless of the result of this match, but there are still little goals that both teams will aim for in the penultimate round-robin clash of the IPL.Delhi made sure of a semi-final berth so early in the tournament that they’ve had the luxury of remaining on top of the table despite a couple of defeats in recent games. That, though, has meant they’ve also lost their winning momentum, and they’ll want to ensure they don’t go into the semi-final with three defeats in their last four matches. The game against Mumbai is also an opportunity to bring back the players who are likely to be in the playing XI in the semis.For Mumbai, Thursday’s game is their last of the tournament, but it’s a chance to move up the ladder to sixth place. Rajasthan’s defeat to Kolkata, and their poor net run rate, means Mumbai will move up a slot if they win. It also means, quite amazingly, that a team that was in the running for a semi-final place till their last match could finish up seventh.

Form guide (completed matches, most recent first)

Delhi Daredevils: LWLWW
Delhi have slipped up recently, and their inconsistent batting has been the worry – in their last two defeats they have scored 120 and 134, totals which have been chased down fairly easily.Mumbai Indians: LLWWL
Mumbai seemed to be getting it together when they beat Bangalore and Punjab in successive games, but they then reverted to their old ways, losing a close game to Rajasthan by two runs. The batting remains inconsistent, and the constant shuffling of the batting order hasn’t helped.

Team news

With the semi-finals only a couple of days away, Delhi might want to bring back the players who will figure in that game. Rajat Bhatia, who has been so effective with the ball, is likely to return, while David Warner could be back to beef up the batting after their feeble display against Bangalore.Delhi Daredevils 1 Gautam Gambhir, 2 Virender Sehwag (capt), 3 AB de Villiers, 4 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 5 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 6 David Warner, 7 Rajat Bhatia, 8 Dirk Nannes, 9 Amit Mishra, 10 Aavishkar Salvi, 11 Ashish Nehra.Mumbai had started with Sachin Tendulkar at the top of the order, and they could end that way too. Dwayne Bravo has flown out to join his West Indian team-mates in England for the ODI series, which means Luke Ronchi could get a game.Mumbai Indians 1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Sachin Tendulkar, 3 Ajinkya Rahane, 4 Luke Ronchi, 5 JP Duminy, 6 Abhishek Nayar, 7 Harbhajan Singh, 8 Chetanya Nanda, 9 Yogesh Takawale (wk), 10 Dhawal Kulkarni, 11 Lasith Malinga.

Stats and trivia

• Lasith Malinga is third in the wicket-takers list in the IPL with 17, two short of RP Singh, the leader.
• Mumbai’s batsmen have made the most number of 50-plus scores, 12, while JP Duminy leads the way with five. Delhi and Chennai are next with ten, with Delhi having the only centurion of the tournament in AB de Villiers.
• In nine games, Sehwag has scored 109 runs at an average of 13.62. He is sixth in the run-scorers’ chart for Delhi.
• Mumbai have a net run rate of +0.401, which is the second-highest in the tournament, after Chennai. Delhi’s net run rate is +0.251.

Head-to-head record

The last time they played each other, Delhi scored a comfortable seven-wicket win, chasing down 117 with plenty to spare. In the two matches they played last season, both teams won at home: Mumbai by 29 runs, and Delhi by five wickets.

Brad Haddin wants Australia to build confidence and rhythm during their two warm-ups for the World Twenty20, starting with a hit-out against Bangladesh on Monday. Haddin has led the team twice this year but hands over to Ricky Ponting for the two-week tournament that begins for Australia at The Oval on Saturday.Despite the squad’s traditional strength in the Test and one-day formats, the team is less certain in the shortest genre and it will be important to fine-tune against Bangladesh and New Zealand over the next two days. “The energy the guys have shown and enthusiasm has been quite good, so we’re actually looking forward to getting our teeth into the game,” Haddin told AAP.”With these games you want to get out of it as an individual what you can so you go into the first world game with some confidence and a bit of rhythm under your belt. We haven’t won this tournament before so we’re pretty keen to make our mark … it’s obviously one piece of silverware we don’t have.”Australia have lost three of their six Twenty20 games this year, but Haddin said the beauty of the format was there was “no real form guide”. “Any team on a given day can make a mark in the competition because it only takes five overs to turn the game in your favour,” he said. “There’s no stand-out favourites, so I think it will be an enjoyable tournament and it will be very good viewing for the fans.”

Former Guyana and West Indies cricketer Ivan Madray died aged 74 at the Georgetown Public Hospital on Thursday, a day after being admitted with hypertension.A middle-order batsman and leg break bowler, Madray played two Tests against Pakistan in 1957-58, scoring three runs and taking one wicket. His first-class career comprised six matches and was over by the time he was 24, after which he moved to England and played for Lincolnshire.The Berbice Cricket Board (BCB), in a statement, said young cricketers could learn much from how Madray played his cricket, especially from his discipline, passion and hard work.Born on July 2, 1934 at Port Mourant, Madray made his first class debut for British Guiana against the touring Australians on April 20, 1955. He was one of several cricketers to emerge from Port Mourant under the guidance of Sir Clyde Walcott. His contemporaries included Basil Butcher, Rohan Kanhai and Joe Solomon.Madray also played alongside some famous West Indies cricketers such as Sir Garfield Sobers, Sir Everton Weekes, Sir Conrad Hunte, Rohan Kanhai and Lance Gibbs in his debut Test against Pakistan at the Queen’s Park Oval, in a match the hosts went on to win by 120 runs.

Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, has hit out at Kevin Pietersen for making critical comments about Shivnarine Chanderpaul.”Every time he [Chanderpaul] gets runs he never fields,” Pietersen told the . “There’s always an injury or something. That has really got on my nerves here. It leads me to think he plays for himself.”Gayle said Pietersen had “no right” to make such comments. “I did talk to him and told him, ‘You don’t need to stoop to that level’. He didn’t actually apologise and if he could apologise that would be nice,” Gayle told .”We’re all big men. There’s no need to go to that level and try and degrade other players. No-one wants to be degraded in this manner. We’re all human beings and everybody is playing this sport to enjoy the game but to take it to that level is very disappointing.”Whatever issues he had, he should have kept to himself. I’ve played with Shiv for years and, as a captain, I get tremendous support from him both on and off the field. His batting in both forms of the game has been brilliant and to hear these sorts of comments out in public has been very disappointing.”Pietersen, however, had praised Gayle. “I’ve loved playing against Chris Gayle,” he said. “He’s funny and relaxed but he’s a real competitor. He’s a comedian with a heart of gold and this series has been played in a real good spirit.”

Graeme Smith has called on the ICC to take hands-on responsibility for all cricket tours in the wake of terrorists targeting the Sri Lankateam in Lahore. The combination of the Lahore shootout and the Mumbai terrorist attacks in November has left some international players jittery about touring in the region and Smith said it was time for the ICC to become more proactive.”We’ve got a massive tour to India next year after England, IPL is around the corner so from our perspective I would like to see security become a decision across the board,” Smith said in Durban. “I think the ICC need to regulate it and they need to play a bigger part in it and ultimately take more responsibility for the security of touring teams.”Smith’s South Africa was the last team before Sri Lanka to visit Pakistan for Tests, in October 2007. Smith said as his players remembered back to that trip they were imagining themselves in the same position as the Sri Lankans, whose bus was attacked on the way to the Gadaffi Stadium on Tuesday.”Our squad was pretty emotional about it,” Smith said. “I think we could relate to it in a way having recently in the last year and a half toured Pakistan and gone through a lot of the emotions of touring a place like that.”Having turned down going back to Karachi for various reasons and having all that security around us, we could almost picture ourselves sitting on a bus. I don’t think you could have a picture of rockets going past the corner of your bus, but you could sort of relate to it.”Smith said the players would no doubt be concerned about visiting the subcontinent for the IPL and the World Cup in 2011 but it was important not to make hasty decisions. He said his squad would continue to take the advice of Cricket South Africa and its security consultants.”We need to view it with an open mind in regards to the 2011 World Cup but I certainly know the emotions that are flying around at the moment, the guys don’t want to be going back to a place like that,” Smith said. “That’s what we need to look and trust the people around us like we always have to make the right decisions.”I don’t think any of us want to risk our lives for a situation. The whole area has been a touch volatile but we’re not going to pre-judge now and say no we’re not going to go [to the IPL], yes we’re going to go. We’re going to take it like we take every tour.”

Dale Steyn has commenced the psychological skirmishes with Australia ahead of the three-Test series in South Africa by suggesting Phillip Hughes, the rookie opener, could struggle under the heavy weight of expectation replacing Matthew Hayden. The South African fast bowler, who led all Test wicket-takers in 2008, suggested Hughes would be subject to similar pressures to Dave Warner, who averaged just 17.66 in Hayden’s former one-day opening slot this summer.”We don’t need to put pressure on him,” Steyn said of Hughes. “I think trying to replace Matthew Hayden and fill those massive shoes will place enough weight on his shoulders. I wish him the best for his career, and obviously if Australia believe he is good enough to play international cricket, then he has our respect.”But I guess we’ll find out what he is made of in the next month or so. I will not be going out there trying to break him down verbally. We’ll just stick to our gameplans, like we did with Dave Warner, and try and apply pressure that way.”Steyn insisted the South Africans felt no sense of schadenfreude in forcing Hayden into retirement. The veteran opener was restricted to just 117 runs at 19.50 in three Tests against the Proteas this summer, and walked away from cricket after the Sydney Test.”It’s not nice to force anyone into retirement,” Steyn said. “I’m sure Hayden would have loved to go onto the Ashes, and I think the Australians will really miss him at the top of their order.”But what was fantastic for us was the ability to get players of his calibre out with good gameplans. We save Hayden and Hussey as key players for them, and they were never able to get on to of us in that series.”The full interview with Dale Steyn will appear as a Cricinfo