All posts by h716a5.icu

Brendon McCullum has been ruled out of the rest of the HRV Cup due to a back injury that could affect his participation for the early part of the Pakistan series

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Dec-2010Brendon McCullum has been ruled out of the remainder of the HRV Cup due to a back injury that could affect his participation for the early part of the home series against Pakistan. McCullum had injured his back during the second Test against India, where he scored a double-century to secure a draw, but played in the third Test and three of the five ODIs that followed.An Otago association statement, as reported in the , said the decision to rule out McCullum was “the most common-sense approach for Brendon to rest to give him the best possible opportunity of taking a full part in the upcoming international series”. McCullum has played just one HRV Cup game for Otago since returning from India. The series against Pakistan comprises three Twenty20s, two Tests and six ODIs, with the first Twenty20 game to be played on Boxing Day in Auckland.McCullum opened the batting for New Zealand in both the Tests and the ODIs on the tour of India and captain Daniel Vettori suggested he could keep his place at the top of the order while Jesse Ryder, a regular opener, could be pushed down, given his sound ability against spin. The practice earlier had been to play McCullum down the order when New Zealand’s batting was experiencing a low.”I do feel sorry for Brendon because it’s the first suggestion [that is made],” Vettori was quoted by the as saying. “It’s tough on him and I think he’s a real asset at the top of the order in the World Cup. Jesse is such a good player of spin, and with his finishing qualities as well we’ve put a little more thought into him batting at No 4 in the one-dayers.

A round-up of the fourth day of the tenth round in Division One of the Quaid-E-Azam Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff28-Dec-2010Water and Power Development Authority moved to within three points of the top of the table after a convincing win against Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited at the Lahore City Cricket Association Ground. SNGPL collapsed on the fourth day, losing eight wickets for 63 runs to hand WAPDA a 157-run win. It was a meek surrender from SNGPL, after opener Naeemuddin had given them an outside chance of winning by guiding them to 123 for 2 by the end of the third day in their chase of 344. Naeemuddin could add only six more to his overnight score of 74 before he was dismissed by seamer Kashif Raza. WAPDA Seamer Sarfraz Ahmed helped himself to four wickets as only two of SNGPL’s last seven batsmen made it to double figures.A tantalisingly close match between Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited and Pakistan International Airlines at the Iqbal Stadium in Faisalabad ended in a draw on a curtailed fourth day, but both sides had their chances to win. Chasing 256, ZTBL were 195 for 7 when stumps were called. ZTBL would have fancied their chances of getting to the target when they reached 120 for 2, courtesy of a half-century by opener Zohaib Khan. They then began to lose wickets steadily with Shoaib Malik picking up two scalps with his offspin. ZTBL captain Imran Nazir tried to hold the middle order together with his 34, but when he fell to seamer Najaf Shah, it was PIA that had the better chance to win. Unfortunately, only 67.4 overs were bowled on the fourth day, which meant there wasn’t enough time for a result. The day began with ZTBL taking PIA’s last two wickets quickly to set up the chase. Seamer Rehan Riaz picked up one of them to finish with figures of 7 for 59 in the innings.

Wolves have reportedly held advanced talks over the potential summer signing of Shakhtar Donetsk winger Pedrinho.

What’s the word?

That is according to Goal Brasil, who stated that Wolves’ interest should result in a positive outcome during the next transfer window.

As per Gazeta Esportiva, the Old Gold reportedly showed interest shortly after the suspension of the Ukrainian Premier League.

Pedrinho in, two out?

The signing of the 24-year-old Brazilian could give Lage the license to axe Francisco Trincao and Daniel Podence, who cost Wolves a combined £183k-per week and have underperformed this season.

Trincao’s loan from Barcelona has not gone to plan, with even Lage admitting that the 22-year-old’s spell at the Molineux has been poor. As per Birmingham Mail, the manager said: “We’ve talked about it since the first day because we’ve not scored too many goals. It’s not just about Trincao, but when you look at your numbers. One goal and one assist is not good.”

Whilst Trincao has managed just one goal and one assist in the Premier League, Podence is another who has failed to deliver for Lage, having netted just two goals and three assists this season in what is almost a replica of his returns the season prior.

The man who could replace the pair is Pedrinho, who was on track to achieve his best run of attacking returns in the Ukrainian Premier League before it was suspended.

With Trincao due to head back to parent club Barcelona at the end of the season, Wolves will only have one left-footed winger in the squad in the form of Pedro Neto. Therefore, Pedrinho could offer great value as an inverted winger for Lage, a move which could boost the Molineux side’s goal returns next season.

Pedrinho has achieved the same amount of attacking returns as Podence has this season in 14 fewer games, with his two assists proving crucial in Shakhtar’s run for the Ukrainian league title before football was stopped in the war-torn country.

In other news: Wolves plot exciting bid for £13.5m-rated “octopus”, £133k-p/w duo could be axed

Bruno Lage will be without Daniel Podence for Wolves’ trip to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, according to a report by Nathan Judah.

Taking to Twitter, the journalist stated: “Podence is a bit of a grey area, has an injury and potentially could play through injections, but he’s unwilling at the moment because he might aggravate that problem.”

The Molineux side have been without the 26-year-old for the last three games and in that time have failed to score a single goal – coincidence much? As a result, Lage will need to find a burst of attacking threat from somewhere and must not shy away from unleashing Pedro Neto in Podence’s absence.

Lage must unleash Neto

Wolves face a tough ask in their quest to bring European football back to Molineux for next season. In their final four Premier League games, they take on Chelsea, Manchester City and Liverpool, with Norwich as the penultimate match.

With goals having been hard to come by this season for the Old Gold, with only 33 in their 34 top-flight games, they cannot afford to be shy in front of goal against three of the league’s best defences.

This is where the under-utilised Neto, who has been described by journalist Sanjeev Jasani as “unbelievable”, comes in.

The 22-year-old has made just nine appearances this season after missing more than half of the campaign due to a knee injury that he sustained towards the end of last term – as per Transfermarkt. he has been sidelined for a mammoth 295 days.

In those nine Premier League appearances, he has started just once, with all of his other outings coming from the bench.

Wolves are in dire need of a player who can provide a cutting edge in the final third, and given his previous form before his injury, Neto is certainly that player.

He bagged this season’s metrics, that would see him as Wolves’ second-highest scorer and leading assists provider in the current Premier League campaign, had he replicated those numbers.

Given that Chelsea boast the third-best defence in the league having conceded just 29 goals this season, it’s apparent that a Wolves side who have failed to score over their last three matches will require something special to find the back of the net against Thomas Tuchel’s side. Neto cold be the man to provide it, particularly with Podence laid low.

In other news: Lage can finally axe “rubbish” liability as Wolves can unleash the next Phil Foden 

The PCB held the first meeting of its general gody in over a decade, on Friday, at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore

ESPNcricinfo staff12-Feb-2011The PCB held the first meeting of its general body in over a decade, on Friday. The meeting was held at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore as per clause 17 of the PCB Constitution.The board said it was the first time the PCB general body had met since 1998, but one was held in the administration of Tauqir Zia in early 2000. A total of 73 members, made up of 18 full members, 53 associate members and two honorary members – former board chairmen Khalid Mehmood and Zia – attended the meeting.The meeting discussed the PCB’s annual report, as well as the audited accounts and budget estimates, and recommended to the governing board various measures to improve the standard of the game. Ijaz Butt, the board chairman, also talked about the need to continue developing the women’s game in Pakistan, given the achievements of the Pakistan women’s team recently. Representatives of blind and deaf cricket were also involved in the meeting.The general body is a larger, more representative body of stakeholders from around the country designed to ensure development and representation in areas such as interior Sindh and Baluchistan, where the game is not as developed as in other provinces and regions. It is supposed to meet once or twice a year and acts as the board’s parliament, where the governing board is the senate.

David Warner and Brett Geeves have been told they could face charges of bringing the game into disrepute if they repeat a very public Twitter quarrel in which Warner accused Geeves of racial vilification

ESPNcricinfo staff02-Feb-2011David Warner and Brett Geeves have been told they could face charges of bringing the game into disrepute if they repeat a very public Twitter quarrel in which Warner accused Geeves of racial vilification. The men have been reprimanded by Cricket Australia and apologised publicly, and to each other, for the ugly back-and-forth that came after the Big Bash preliminary final between New South Wales and Tasmania.Geeves, the injured Tasmania fast bowler, began by tweeting: “Any young children that saw D Warners reaction after hitting Hilf for biggest 6 ever – take that as an example of humility gone wrong.”Warner replied with: “@brettygeevs don’t know what kids would b following u but remember what u said to hughy that’s right, lucky u were not playing, c***,” and then a further message that said “@brettygeevs got to hate it when ur own squad don’t like you bahahahaha”.Geeves came back with: “@davidwarner31 it’s a z. I get the feeling my name isn’t the only one you have trouble spelling.”Warner continued with: “@brettygeevz u want 2 talk humility u were lucky one player refused to follow up on your racial villification slur u made on the field.”A Cricket Australia spokesman said the incident in question had happened several years ago during an interstate match and had been addressed at the time by mediation. The Geeves and Warner incident again highlights the hazards of social media for players, which was in the news earlier this week when the New Zealand batsman Jesse Ryder vented his frustration at a team-mate for running him out.

Parthiv Patel’s 90 was the stand-out performance for West Zone as they dominated East Zone and notched up a 91-run victory in the Deodhar Trophy semi-final at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur

ESPNcricinfo staff07-Mar-2011
ScorecardParthiv Patel’s 90 was the stand-out performance for West Zone as they dominated East Zone and notched up a 91-run victory in the Deodhar Trophy semi-final at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. After the top order had laid a solid foundation, West Zone’s middle and lower order collapsed, and they were all out for 247. It proved more than enough, though, as their seamers Jaidev Unadkat and Ishwar Choudhary took three wickets each and helped bowl East Zone out for 156.After choosing to bat, West Zone were given the ideal start by Parthiv and Wasim Jaffer, who put together a 91-run partnership in 16.4 overs. Jaffer’s dismissal brought in Cheteshwar Pujara, who played second fiddle to Parthiv, scoring 49 off 81 balls. West Zone had reached 203 for 2 in 41.3 overs, when Varun Aaron, who is developing a reputation as one of the quickest bowlers in the country, dismissed Rohit Sharma for 10. Aaron went on to pick up four more wickets, as West Zone lost their last eight for 44.Whatever momentum East Zone might have taken from that lower order collapse, was robbed from them very quickly by Unadkat and Choudhary, who ran through the top order, reducing East Zone to 55 for 5. Manoj Tiwary and Biplab Samantray put on 49 for the sixth wicket, but when Tiwary lofted left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla straight to long-off, East were staring down the barrel. Samantray went on to get 51, and was the last man to fall, bowled by Choudhary in the 42nd over.

When Pune play their first match in the IPL, Yuvraj Singh will be leading them against his old team Kings XI Punjab

The Preview by Siddarth Ravindran09-Apr-2011Match factsSunday, April 10
Start time 2000 (1430 GMT)Can Yuvraj Singh carry his World Cup form and hunger into the IPL?•Getty ImagesBig pictureThe biggest talking point going into this match will be Yuvraj Singh. The “icon” player for Kings XI Punjab in the earlier seasons, their local hero, will now be leading the opposition. And this, after being removed as captain of Punjab in the second season. His forgettable 2010, when he lost his spot in the national team in both Tests and one-dayers, also included a miserable IPL season. All that changed at the World Cup: four Man-of-the-Match awards, capped off with the Man-of-the-Tournament honour tells the story. Pune will hope he can bring that form to the IPL, and inspire a young side.Punjab, meanwhile, have jettisoned one overseas wicketkeeper-batsman as captain, and brought in another – Adam Gilchrist. Two more of their most important players are also Australians – the allrounder David Hussey, and opener Shaun Marsh. The squad is pretty thin on Indian talent, with the highest profile members being Praveen Kumar, Piyush Chawla and Dinesh Karthik, none of whom are bonafide matchwinners. In a tournament where domestic talent has been pivotal to success, Gilchrist and Co have a tough task on their hands.Team talkPune are missing several key personnel: allrounder Angelo Mathews is likely to miss the entire season with a leg injury that forced him out of the World Cup final; another player who couldn’t play the World Cup final due to injury is Ashish Nehra, whose finger injury will keep him out of the first few matches of the IPL; and opener Manish Pandey has been banned for four matches after breaching the rules related to the signing of uncapped players.Punjab may take a few matches to get their combination working, since some experimentation will have to be done in arriving at the best XI from a squad lacking big names who pick themselves. The only player they have from the World Cup-winning Indian squad is legspinner Piyush Chawla, who was a peripheral player in the campaign.In the spotlightGraeme Smith has had a torrid time with the bat over the past few months, but as one of the few players with plenty of experience in the squad, he will need to step up over the season.Shane Warne eased back into cricket with a teasing spell of legspin bowling against Deccan Chargers on Saturday. Can Adam Gilchrist make a similarly seamless return after a year away from the game?Prime numbers Yuvraj Singh had no hundreds or half-centuries in Punjab’s disastrous 2010 season Robin Uthappa maintained an astonishing strike-rate of 171.55 in the previous season Pune are the most expensive frachise in the tournament, and have the largest squadThe chatter”We don’t have icon players but we also don’t need icons. We have got a good bright team that has the right mix of experienced as well as new players.”

West Indies captain Darren Sammy struck a confident note ahead of the first Test against Pakistan and said that his team would look carry the winning momentum from the last two games of the ODI series against the visitors into the first Test

ESPNcricinfo staff12-May-2011West Indies captain Darren Sammy struck a confident note ahead of the first Test against Pakistan and said that his team would look carry the winning momentum from the last two games of the ODI series against the visitors into the first Test.”We fought back really well to win the last two matches in the one-day format and we will take that momentum and belief into the Test matches,” Sammy said. “Test cricket is a different form of cricket, so we know we have to make the adjustment.”We will have more time, so we will look to be patient as we execute. It’s about occupying the crease and putting good totals on the board when we bat. When we bowl, it’s about being patient and trying to get the ball in the right areas and building the pressure on the Pakistanis.”Pakistan won the first three matches of the five-match ODI series to seal the series, but West Indies came back to win a rain-marred fourth ODI and then sealed a comprehensive 10-wicket win in the final game.”We believe we can win the series,” Sammy said. “We believe this because we have worked hard in the build-up to the series and we know we have the ability to perform on home turf and get the better of Pakistan. We saw an improved batting performance in the last two matches of the one-day series and everyone in the team is feeling confident and fully prepared.”We hope all the hard work we have been doing in the nets and the two-day warm-up match a few days ago, will be transferred into the middle. The way our bowling has been coming along in the last six months in one-day cricket and on the tour of Sri Lanka – we know we are capable of getting 20 wickets.”West Indies’ bowling will be strengthened by the return of fast bowler Fidel Edwards, who hasn’t played for his country in two years due to a serious back injury. Legspinner Devendra Bishoo, who was the leading wicket-taker in the five-match ODI series, with 11 wickets, is in line to make his Test debut.West Indies struggled with their batting in the first three games of the ODI series, but the inclusion of the experienced Shivnarine Chaderpaul and the form shown by Lendl Simmons and Darren Bravo in the ODI series, could provide them with the much-needed stability.”I have strong confidence that whatever 11 is selected will go out and do the job for West Indies,” Sammy said. “The Test match pitch looks similar to the one we played on in the one-day match here, so I have faith our attack will deliver against what is a good Pakistan team.”

Allrounder Andre Russell has said West Indies’ failure to apply pressure when Harbhajan Singh came out to bat when India were 92 for 6, still needing 134 runs victory, cost them the game

Sriram Veera in Antigua12-Jun-2011Allrounder Andre Russell has said West Indies’ failure to apply pressure when Harbhajan Singh came out to bat when India were 92 for 6, still needing 134 runs for victory, cost them the game.”When Harbhajan came to the wicket, we didn’t really apply much pressure,” Russell said. “We allowed him to score freely. That’s the thing we have to tighten up next time. We had to bowl at right areas against him early on to make him uncomfortable. We didn’t do that today. All of these things we can take as a learning experience.”There were hardly any people in for the game in the morning and those who had come were stunned by the West Indian top-order collapse as they crumbled from 65 for 1 to 96 for 7. It was Russell, who with his violent, unbeaten 92 and some clean hitting, lifted West Indies out of the hole. He started his innings slowly, ensuring he settled in before he unfurled the bigger shots. One ball flew over the midwicket boundary and landed in the parking lot. A few others also cleared the boundary. He ultimately hit eight fours and five sixes in his 64-ball knock.”I always go in with a positive frame of my mind, “Russell said. “I believe in myself and I know I can hit the ball. What matters the most to me is that I get a start. As long as I get a start; start sweating a bit and see the bowlers, I can bang them around later. It was important for me to do well and express myself against a top team like India. I grabbed the opportunity with both hands.”Russell said he wasn’t nervous when he walked into bat with West Indies reeling at 96 for 7. “The experience of playing in the World Cup helped. In fact I ran in to the crease and had no nerves. It was somewhat a similar situation against England in the World Cup. We had lost early wickets then as well. I just focussed on getting a start. There were lots of overs left and I knew if I could stay there as long as possible I would score some runs.”An innings like this is bound to raise the expectations of the fans, who will demand from him to perform as an allrounder, but Russell said he primarily saw himself as a bowling allrounder. “I try to balance it as the best I can. Bowling is my first choice. I bowl first in the nets and then have a hit. I don’t go to training and just bowl and not bat. I want to have that balance and enjoy the success.”Russell said that Saturday’s knock was easily his best innings of his life. “I had 65-ball 108 against Ireland for Jamaica but this was my biggest innings as it came on a big stage. That 108 was amazing but I really enjoyed myself today. If only we had 30 more runs the result could have been different.”