All posts by csb10.top

Western Province had the worst of the opening day of the UCB Bowl 4-day final at Newlands.They were dismissed for a paltry 165 after being sent in to bat on a pitch with a distinct green tinge, and by close of play Northerns had closed to within 86 of this total with nine wickets in hand.Even this total represented a recovery of sorts for the home batsmen, who had been reeling on 8 for 3 within the first half-hour of play. Friedel de Wet dismissed recent senior players Rashaad Magiet and Jonathan McLean for ducks, while JP Duminy threw his wicket away with the silliest of run out’s, a bemused Finlay Brooker hardly breaking into a trot as he sauntered in from mid off to whip off the bails.Ryan Maron played a gritty innings of 34 before being bowled, and Wesley Euley picked off 8 fours in his innings of 51, the only half century of the day. Mark de Stadler batted aggressively for his unbeaten 26, mustering enough support from the tail to take the total to an almost respectable score. Friedel de Wet was the best of the bowlers, taking 4 for 35.Coming in to bat after a delayed tea interval, Aldin Smith and Maurice Aronstam made slow but steady progress, putting on 58 for the opening wicket in 20 overs before Smith perished cutting at Paul Harris. Aronstam and Allahudien Paleker played safely until close of play, which came when the umpires took the players off for bad light with just over four overs to be bowled . All of the home bowlers, except Ryan ten Doeschate, were economical, going for less than two runs per over. Harris was particularly impressive with figures of 10-6-9-1. The score at stumps was 79 for 1, with Aronstam on 41.

Derbyshire v Northamptonshire at DerbyDerbyshire have a chance to extend their winning run and go top against the men from Northampton. After Dominic Cork led them by spectacular example in their first two matches, including a last gasp two-run victory over Durham in the most exciting finish of the season so far, they will hope to overcome the visitors. Both Stephen Stubbings and overseas player Michael Di Venuto have so far impressed with the bat.Northants’ opening game of the season was at Northampton and went true to form for that ground, with well over 1,000 runs scored for the fall of just 13 wickets, Mike Hussey, Mal Loye and Russell Warren all piled on the runs but perhaps of more significance is the fact that both John Blain and the young Carl Greenidge, who moved from Surrey in the winter, bowled with considerable success. Northants are hard pressed to gain results at home – especially early in the season – and must therefore fight hard for away victories if they are to bounce back into Division One.Nottinghamshire v Essex at NottinghamNotts welcome Essex after being steam-rollered at Lords in Gus Fraser’s championship farewell. If they are to pursue promotion they will need to find runs from sources other than Darren Bicknell, but with Chris Read coming in at number eight their batting is capable of greater resiliance. South African born Greg Smith (31) took four wickets as well as scoring 50 in a lost cause against Middlesex.Essex hope to return immediately to the top division, and having replaced one prolific batsman in Stuart Law with another in keeper/batsman Andy Flower, they may well have got a better deal than the ECB, as Andy is clearly flowering while their other stumper Foster is out of action, having been kept from playing by ECB order for the first part of the season. Essex are without the services of promising young seamer Ricky Anderson, and may lack the bowling to knock sides over twice. But they have signed Jon Dakin from Leicestershire and Middlebrook from Yorkshire to back up their veterans and tyros.Worcestershire v Glamorgan at WorcesterWorcestershire, having begun the season well in both competitions, will be hoping to repeat their victory in the B&H match at Cardiff this week. Veteran David Leatherdale, together with Ben Smith and young Stephen Peters, formerly of Essex, have begun the season well with the bat and the bowling of overseas player Andy Bichel has been ably backed up by Kabir Ali and Gareth Batty, another new signing who moved from Surrey over the winter in pursuit of a regular first-team place. Batty, a 24-year-old off-spinning all-rounder from Bradford, impressed for Surrey in his few first-team appearances last season as well as in the seconds.Glamorgan will be hoping that Simon Jones can repeat his career best 6-45, and that overseas player Mark Kasprowicz produces a better return on their investment this match. A side with limited bowling particularly needs its batting to stand firm. What runs they have scored this season have been spread around, although they will be hoping that the ECB don’t notice that their county and B&H batting averages are topped by their 20-year-old England Under-19 wicket-keeper, who ran up a century in defeat at Derby.

P W L D Bat Bowl Deduct PointsMiddlesex 2 2 0 0 8 6 0.00 38.00Derbyshire 2 2 0 0 3 6 0.00 33.00Worcestershire 2 1 0 1 8 4 0.00 28.00Gloucestershire 2 0 1 1 6 6 0.00 16.00Essex 1 0 0 1 4 3 0.00 11.00Northamptonshire 1 0 0 1 5 2 0.00 11.00Durham 2 0 2 0 2 6 0.00 8.00Glamorgan 1 0 1 0 0 3 0.00 3.00Nottinghamshire 1 0 1 0 0 3 0.50 2.50

The England and India cricket teams will join together tomorrow (Saturday) in observing a minute’s silence in honour of the tragic deaths of the 10-year-old girls, Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.The minute’s silence will take place at 1.38pm at Headingley, just prior tothe beginning of the afternoon’s play in the third Test match.John Read, Director of Corporate Affairs at the ECB, said: “The whole country has been shocked by the horrific events that have unfolded in the village of Soham over the past three weeks. In our own very small way, this minute’s silence is cricket’s way of showing profound sympathy for the parents of Holly and Jessica. We cannot fully appreciate the depths of despair and sheer sorrow that they are feeling, but we can show that we care.”

Australian left-handers Mike Hussey and Jeff Cook laid the foundations for a solid Northamptonshire score against the reigning champions Surrey at Wantage Road.Coming together following the demise of Mal Loye with only eight on the board, Hussey (75) and Cook (80) added 172 in 40 overs as the home side reached 320-4 at the close, fully justifying acting-captain Tony Penberthy’s decision to bat first.Their stand set a new county record against Surrey, eclipsing the 154 posted by Cook’s namesake, former skipper Geoff, and David Steele at The Oval in 1977.Northants might still have struggled after collapsing in mid-afternoon from 180-1 to 186-4 in the space of five overs, but another substantial partnership was forthcoming from Penberthy (62 not out) and Alec Swann (64 not out).They batted right through the final session of the day, putting on 134 to make certain of three batting bonus points – with power to add.Surrey had made the ideal start when Loye edged Alex Tudor to Graham Thorpe at third slip in the fourth over of the morning, but Hussey and Cook made the most of another good batting pitch at Northampton to tilt the balance back in Northants’ favour.Cook hit 12 fours in his 121-ball knock while Hussey, who eventually became a second victim for leg-spinner Ian Salisbury, stroked eight boundaries in a stay of three-and-a-quarter hours.Swann and Penberthy completed their half-centuries in successive overs just before the close, making it a largely frustrating day for last year’s Division One winners.

Our last week here in New Zealand was filled with a mixture of emotions. We were ecstatic when we beat India in the semifinals last Sunday. It gave us a full week to recharge our batteries and prepare for the final on Saturday, 9 February.However, like when we first arrived here, the weather was determined to play a major role in the way the tournament was to proceed. The East coast of this region of the South island was hit by a huge storm and this meant that we were unable to train outdoors for three full days. It also meant that the semifinal match between Australia and the West Indies had to be postponed from the Wednesday to the Thursday which the Aussies won and only by Thursday evening did we know who our opponents for the final would be.During this week we had to struggle against the threat of boredom. A planned golf day and a visit to the beach had to be cancelled due to the poor weather. Nevertheless we managed to see at least 2 good movies, do a fair amount of shopping and was forced to improvise and move our training to the indoor facilities here at Lincoln University.Our squad of players was like a caged animal desperately trying to get out and run free. It was a long week for us, but finally Saturday arrived and we resigned ourselves to the fact that no more preparations could be done that would allow us to perform better. Despite the obstacles of this long week we did feel that in the end we were prepared as well as we could be for the challenge of competing in the Under 19 World Cup Final against the Aussies!On the morning of the match the sun shone as bright as ever and any thoughts of the storm that had prevailed earlier in the week was now a distant memory. Things seemed to get even better when our captain Hashim Amla won the toss for the umpteenth time in this tournament and decided that we would bat.We had a solid start to the match and at 12 overs we were cruising at just under five runs an over despite having lost two early wickets. From this point, things started going horribly wrong for us. We suffered two silly run-outs at crucial points of the match and was never really able to recover from this as we had lost two of our better batsmen. The fact that they were also our better players of spin was compounded by the fact that the Aussies were playing four spinners in their team. Things were going really badly until our wicket-keeper Zwelibansi “Bob” Homani came to our rescue and hit an unbeaten 53. Bob unfortunately ran out of overs an we ended with a score of 206, a remarkable feat considering the obstacles in the middle of the innings.The rest of this match was something we would prefer to forget. despite our bowlers bowling very well and consistently beating the bat, we were unfortunate not to take wickets and somehow lady luck did not smile on us with any “lucky breaks”. The Australians eventually beat us by seven wickets – a statistic we did not feel reflected our worth as a team – they were simply better than us on the day! To the credit of our players, they tried all the way to the end and should be commended for their efforts to have reached this stage of the tournament. No doubt many of our players will have learnt from their experiences at this World Cup and this can only bode well for our cricket.Later that evening we attended the final dinner along with the other semifinalists of both the Super League and the Plate Championship. It was an opportunity to mix with players from the other countries without the tension of competition in the air. A good night was had by all and certainly by the end of the evening, the bitter taste of defeat was beginning to fade.A lie-in on in the morning and an easy day of packing before the long flight home was our main activity as we awoke on our second last day in New Zealand. We were all bracing ourselves for the early start to our final day. We had to be up at 03h00 to allow us to leave for Christchurch airport at 04h15 to catch a connecting flight at 06h30 to Sydney and then on to Johannesburg. The only good thought that we had about all this travel was the knowledge that we will soon be back on South African soil.The tour had flown by from the first day we met as a team on 4 January and I think that I speak on behalf of the entire squad when I say that it was a fantastic experience that will remain in our minds and hearts for the rest of our lives. Our only regret would be that we did not bring back the World Cup.For myself and Anton Ferreira who accompanied us as a technical advisor, it is even harder to bear as it is the third Under 19 World Cup that we have had the pleasure of participating in without winning the big prize.No doubt other South African Under 19 teams will compete at other world cups in the years to come. Maybe they will have the benefit of our experiences here to allow them to go one step better and have a little more success than we did. They will however never be the same team, as the Under 19 team of 2002 of which, I can honestly say, “I am proud to have been a member of”.Farewell,Shane Jabaar (fizzer)

In the end it all proved too much. For four days England played with commitment against a noisy Sri Lankan team, in sapping heat, on a puffy pitch, with umpires who were inconsistent. It was a frightful experience and it finally broke the tourists.When they started this morning, with the reassuring presence of Michael Atherton and Graham Thorpe at the crease, they would have retained realistic hopes of batting out the day on a pitch that, though spinning like a top, wasn’t as volatile as had been expected before the game.

Those hopes were dashed as England lost Atherton, Thorpe and Graeme Hick before the lunch interval. In the afternoon session they then capitulated, losing their last five wickets for 13 runs to lose the game by an innings and 28 runs.Once again, the umpiring decisions of Peter Manuel and A.V Jayaprakash dominated the minds of the players, the media and especially the supporters.Some English fans booed the umpires last night as they left the field and a small band tried to hunt them down later in their beachside hotel. Today, they hooted with glee at every decision turned down and growled with frustration whenever the finger was raised.They did not have to wait long for action too, as Michael Atherton failed to add to his overnight score of 44. He was caught behind in Chaminda Vaas’s first over of the day. A.V Jayaprakash raised his finger, although television replays confirmed that it was close enough to warrant a trial by television.Alec Stewart and Graham Thorpe batted for an hour as they added 22 runs. It was trench-like stuff, a squirted single here, a guided edge there, but Stewart was more fluent than he had been in the first innings. He even hit four boundaries in his unbeaten 34, including two off Muralitharan, a feat that only Trescothick had previously managed in this match.But Jayasuriya’s regular rotation of his bowlers finally paid dividends as Kumar Dharmasena ended Thorpe’s two-hour resistance, trapping him lbw with a quicker delivery. Graeme Hick was then caught at second slip off Jayasuriya for six.England went into lunch on 174 for five. Shortly afterwards Craig White prodded forward to Muttiah Muralitharan, in the 103rd over of the innings, and offered a simple bat-pad catch. Jayaprakash ruled not out and the Barmy Army wailed with delight. The next ball White tried to sweep a full-length ball. It struck him outside the line of off stump, but the dreaded finger went up nevertheless.

It was all downhill from there. Caddick was bowled around his legs by Jayasuriya, Ashley Giles was pinned to his stumps by the beguiling Muralitharan, Robert Croft appeared to have edged on to his pads, but was adjudged lbw, and Darren Gough was bowled, first ball.Dav Whatmore was delighted with his team’s performance: “I thought it was a fantastic effort, with a controlled amount of energy throughout those four-and-a-half-days. The taste of victory is always sweet, but particularly so against an England side that has shown signs of improvement recently.”Not everyone agreed with the phrase “controlled amount of energy.” The Sri Lankans are being accused of pressurising the umpires through excessive appealing.Sanath Jayasuriya can’t see what all the fuss is about: “I spoke to the players after the Match Referee spoke to us yesterday morning about excessive appealing. I don’t think there is a problem there. The players are human beings and they are used to appealing in these conditions where the ball is turning and keeping low.”The Match Referee, Hanumant Singh, did not agree. He has fined Muttiah Muralitharan, Russel Arnold, Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara 25% of their match fee for “unnecessary appealing and running towards the umpire in jubilation before the decision is given.”

A crucial half-century by No. 8 Qaiser Abbas took National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) to a two-wicket win against Port Qasim Authority (PQA) at the Gaddafi Stadium.Chasing 211, NBP were in trouble at 122 for 6 when seamer Tanvir Ahmed, who took 12 wickets in the match, ran through the top order. But a defiant seventh wicket partnership of 84, led by Abbas, revived the chase and helped them secure victory.Neither team dominated the low-scoring game but NBP were at a slight disadvantage after the first innings, when a seven-wicket haul by Ahmed bowled them out for 117, leaving them 33 behind. The last six wickets fell for 16 runs.As PQA looked to consolidate on the lead and set their opponents a stiff target, fast bowler Umaid Asif took 5 for 55 to peg them back in their second innings. Umar Amin and No. 7 Daniyal Ahsan scored 42 and 45 respectively to help them reach 177 before being bowled out. Yet, a target of 211 meant NBP has to score the highest total in the match to win it.After the early loss of opener Nasir Jamshed, NBP were given a platform by Sami Aslam and Umair Khan, and later Wahab Riaz. But three wickets for two runs changed the complexion of the game, with 129 runs still needed. Abbas sealed the chase with his 52 off 66 deliveries.Despite the game being dominated by bowlers, fast bowler Riaz went wicketless in the game, and Mohammad Sami, who had taken seven wickets against Pakistan International Airlines a fortnight ago, took two wickets. Opener Jamshed managed only 11 runs across both innings.

ScorecardB Aparajith made an unbeaten 93 to rescue South Zone•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

An unbeaten 161-run fourth-wicket stand between B Aparajith and Manish Pandey helped South Zone overcome a shaky start and reach a healthy 213 for 3 in the first day of their Duleep Trophy quarter-final clash against West Zone in Chennai. Only 54 overs of play were possible after the start was delayed by nearly three hours due to a wet outfield.South Zone, choosing to bat, struggled to cope with the seamers early on, and lost the openers Abhinav Mukund and Akshath Reddy off successive overs from Jaydev Unadkat and Murtuja Vahora respectively.KL Rahul, fresh from a series of impressive performances for the Under-23 team in the Emerging Teams Cup in Singapore, was sent in at No. 3 to provide some stability. However, he was trapped lbw for 6 by Yusuf Pathan in the 16th over, leaving South Zone at 52 for 3.But Aparajith and Pandey counterattacked by striking a total of 18 fours between them. Pandey had made successive fifties for India Blue in the recently concluded Challenger Trophy and he continued his good form with the bat on Thursday by hitting a 118-ball 81 that included seven fours and a six. He was given ample support at the other end by Aparajith, who hit 11 fours during a patient 93, seven short of what would be his second first-class century.West Zone captain Wasim Jaffer introduced Rakesh Dhruv, Akshay Darekar and Ankit Bawne all into the mix to break the partnership, but the pair stood firm and survived 38 overs, to give South Zone a solid platform to build on.

Giles Clarke, the chairman of the ECB, has branded the end of the Investec Ashes series at The Oval “totally unsatisfactory” and called upon the ICC chief executive, David Richardson, to change the regulations regarding bad light at the earliest opportunity.A full house crowd booed the umpires after they led the players from the pitch with England requiring 21 more runs from the final four overs of the match.It was a disappointing end to a dramatic final day that had seen 447 runs scored, 17 wickets taken and Kevin Pietersen score the fastest half-century by an England player in Ashes history after a bold declaration from Australia and a sustained run-chase from England.Set 227 to win in 44 overs, England appeared to be on the brink of the win that would have secured a record-breaking 4-0 victory – a score line they have never achieved in an Ashes series in England – before the umpires intervened.It left Clarke fuming. While he understood that the umpires had little choice but to end play – the ICC playing regulations state that they are obliged to take the players from the field once the light has dropped to the level it had been when deemed unfit for play earlier in the match – he felt there should be some flexibility to respect the requirements of a spectator sport.”It’s totally unsatisfactory the way the game ended,” Clarke said. “The rules are clearly unacceptable and I expect David Richardson to change it at the next ICC chief executives’ meeting.”Tempers also become frayed on the pitch. With Australia sensing that the game was slipping away from them and their fielders struggling to pick-up the ball, captain Michael Clarke brought his concerns to the attention of the umpires.When the umpires attempted to take light meter readings out of sight of Clarke, Aleem Dar seemed to gently push the Australian captain away. It left Clarke unimpressed.”I remember Aleem touching me and I asked him politely to not touch me because if I touched him I’d be suspended for three games,” Michael Clarke said. “That’s all I can really remember. I just know a player is not allowed to touch an umpire. But for me personally, I have absolutely no issue with it at all.”The umpires took the players off the pitch on the second day of the game due to bad light. At the time they took a reading on their light meters which, in accordance with ICC regulations, set a precedent for the rest of the game. Whether the light on either day could be considered to have suggested an “obvious and foreseeable risk to the safety of any player or umpire, so that it would be unreasonable or dangerous for play to take place”, as the regulations currently state, is debatable.Michael Clarke, at least, felt the light was considerably worse by the end of day five than it had been at the end of day two. He also felt it was worse than when the umpires had led the players from the pitch in Manchester when Australia were in the dominant position.”There was no comparison,” Clarke said. “I don’t think I’m going to get into the numbers but I remember seeing the reading when I got told we had to go off in Manchester and I stood in the middle of the wicket today and there was a big difference. But for us, we just have to go on the umpire’s call. If they think it’s safe to keep playing then we keep playing.”I just asked the question: why we haven’t got the meter out here? It took a few overs to get it out. Just going on what’s happened in the past through this Test series, you know around that time is generally when it’s getting close to when the umpires have consistently taken us off the field.”Alastair Cook, the England captain, also expressed his empathy with the umpires. While he was naturally disappointed to be denied a memorable win, he admitted it has become “pretty dark”. He also credited Australia for an enterprising declaration that had set-up a highly entertaining final day of the series.”It would have been nice to finish the game off,” Cook said. “But rules are there for a reason. It was pretty dark and the umpires have strict guidelines. If the boot had been on the other foot, we would have asked the same questions as the Australians.”Of course we understand the frustration. It’s a shame for an amazing crowd. But you can also see the other side of it. We understand the rules and regulations. The umpires have to take emotion out of the game and do their job. They have to be consistently fair to both sides.”It is disappointing to be sitting here when we felt we could have scored those runs in the final four overs, but I understand the umpires’ decision.”

Andrew Hudson, former South Africa batsman, has been reappointed as convener of the national selection committee, which also includes the incumbent Shafiek Abrahams and new members Linda Zondi, a former KwaZulu-Natal wicketkeeper, and Hussein Manack, a former Gauteng allrounder. Russell Domingo, South Africa’s head coach, is an ex officio appointment on the panel that will serve until the 2015 World Cup.CSA high performance manager Vincent Barnes and transformation manager Max Jordaan will also serve on the committee in a non-voting capacity. Barnes and Corrie van Zyl were released from the panel to make way for Zondi and Manack.”The board felt the need for a stronger independent component to the selection committee,” CSA’s acting chief executive Naasei Appiah said. “The previous panel had a majority of members who were employed by CSA. The national coach is the only voting member of the new panel who is employed by CSA.”As part of their mandate, there will have to be a selector on duty at all franchise matches in all the different competitions. Linda Zondi is succeeding Shafiek Abrahams as convener of the national Under-19 panel and he will have a key role to play as the Under-19 group is a vital area of our talent catchment area.”Zondi, a former first-class wicketkeeper, has been involved with Kwa-Zulu Natal’s development program, and has worked with the national Under-19 side. He was among the three black African candidates who were in the running to be nominated to the panel.Maneck, the other appointee, played first-class cricket for Gauteng (formerly Transvaal) and was one of the non-playing members of South Arica’s inaugural post-readmission tour to India in 1992. He has served on the Gauteng Cricket Board and is a selector at the Lions – the franchise which won the domestic T20 cup, shared the one-day cup, and finished second in the first-class competition.Van Zyl, who was released from the panel, was appointed selector in 2010, when he was also the interim coach of the South Africa team. After Gary Kirsten took over as coach in 2011, van Zyl moved on to the high-performance program and stayed on as selector. Barnes, who will serve on the committee in a non-voting capacity, was appointed to the panel in June 2011.Hudson, who was first appointed convenor of selectors in 2010, will lead the new panel in their first assignment to pick the South Africa team for the series against Pakistan in October. The tour begins on October 14 in the UAE, and consists of two Tests, five ODIs and two T20s.