All posts by csb10.top

Martin Love today led an Australia A onslaught which demonstrated England had done nothing to solve its bowling problems.Love, who’s become a serial tormentor of the tourists, hit an unbeaten 201 as the Australians cruised to 3-353 declared on the first day of the three-day match, England’s only opportunity to find form before the second Test in Adelaide.The tourists were 1-50 in reply at stumps.After hitting an unbeaten 250 for Queensland against England a fortnight ago, Love continued to underline his status as the best top order batsman outside the Test team.Admittedly England rested two of its frontline bowlers, Andy Caddick and Ashley Giles.But it did use two of its formerly walking wounded, Steve Harmison and Andrew Flintoff, and replacement Alex Tudor. Two of the three are likely to be picked for Adelaide.Oddly Chris Silverwood, who was flown out from England this week as another replacement, was made 12th man and is presumably not in the Test frame.The pace attack’s performance left assistant coach Graham Dilley exasperated.”On a flat track you have very little margin for error,” the former England fast bowler said.”You need discipline, patience and luck and we’re nowhere near any of those.”Love agreed the English bowlers didn’t make the most of the early conditions, bowling too short and wide.However he warned that Harmison, with whom he’s played at Durham, could turn matches on his good days.Harmison was by far the quickest, but consistency was not his forte.Love said he didn’t know how close he was to a Test debut.”All I can do is keep scoring runs and putting pressure on the guys in the team,” said Love, who faced 243 balls and hit 25 fours in just 301 minutes.Acting captain Marcus Trescothick continued the English habit of sending the Australians in and, as usual, lived to regret it.In a willing opening burst on an initially lively Bellerive Oval wicket, Tudor and Harmison gave England early heart.Matthew Elliott had an unhappy return to this level when a rising Tudor delivery crunched into his right elbow on the first ball of the match.He needed stitches, but an x-ray cleared him of serious injury and he could have returned to the crease.Shortly afterwards Tudor caught Jimmy Maher’s edge and the Australia A captain was gone for six.But once the first hour was weathered, the bowling attack fell away and Love and Greg Blewett, who was not at his fluent best, put on 140.Blewett was bowled by Craig White for only 25 but England’s woes continued when 21-year-old Michael Clarke arrived.Clarke played beautifully, at times contemptuously, and will surely play for Australia one day.Love and Clarke piled on 123 in 112 minutes before the NSW batsman, having rushed to his half century with two fours off Tudor, skied a slog.The appearance of Marcus North simply lifted the scoring rate further and it was the Western Australian lefthander who provided the final fireworks.Before the declaration ended the slaughter, he rushed to 33 with an on-drive over the boundary followed by a reverse sweep for four.England lost Michael Vaughan for eight when he inside edged Brad Williams onto his stumps.But Trescothick (5) and the aggressive Mark Butcher (30) survived until stumps without serious alarms.

The second day of the three day championship match between Somerset Second Eleven and Gloucestershire ended evenly balanced, after the hosts dismissed their visitors for 244 by the close of play.Earlier in the day Somerset scored 248 for 3, with opener Neil Edwards scoring his maiden century at this level before in mid afternoon rain forced the players from the field.During the break Somerset skipper Tom Webley declared to leave Edwards unbeaten on 101 and Wes Durston 54 not out.When play started again in late afternoon Gloucestershire were bowled out for 244, with Durston having the impressive figures of 10 overs, 5 wickets for 53 runs.Tomorrow is the final day of the match, and if the weather remains fine an interesting finish could be in prospect

Hampshire’s 2nd XI will contest the ECB Second XI Trophy Final against Kent 2nd XI at The Rose Bowl on Monday 9th September 2002. 11:00am start, 50 overs per side.Coach Tony Middleton retains the eleven that defeated Yorkshire in the Semi-Final.Playing in there third final in the past four years and fourth in all, Hampshire will be looking to avenge their defeat at Canterbury in 1999.In 1987 Hampshire lost to Derbyshire at The County Ground, followed by defeat against Kent. Hampshire then lost to Leicestershire at The County Ground in 2000.Live scores throughout the day will be shown on the Hampshire Web site.John Carr, the ECB Cricket Operations Manager will present the trophy at the end of the day.Team: Jason Laney, Jimmy Adams, Alex Morris, Lawrence Prittipaul, John Francis, James Hamblin, Chris Benham, Iain Brunnschweiler, Irfan Shah, James Tomlinson, James Schofield.

Former Test cricketer Manzoor Elahi has been named captain of the Lahore City Cricket Association Blues side and Tariq Mahmood of Whites. Both the teams will take part in the Quaid-i-Azam Trophy Grade-I, starting from Dec 21.Manzoor, earlier was named as member of the LCCA selection committee, but later he showed his interest for playing as a member of the team. Manzoor is the only Test cricketer representing LCCA in the country’s sole first class tournament.The selection committee headed by LCCA president, Aamir Hayat Khan Rokri, selected 25 players for each side included 20 seniors and five Under-19 after holding three days trials at the Model Town Greens ground from Nov 28 to 30.Blues: Manzoor Elahi (captain), Sohail Idrees, Ali Hussain, Ziaur Rehman, Latif Gohar, Kashif Mehmood, Ashraf Ali, Hafiz Yawar, Ali Raza (wicketkeeper), Shahzad Butt, Mohammad Khalil, Mohammad Afzal, Ahmed Khan, Moeez Siddiqi, Kashif Ejaz, Mustaqeem Ahmed, Faisal Mehmood, Ahmed Dar, Kashif Shafi, Mohammad Shafiq. Under- 19: Amjad Ali, Atif Ejaz, Kashif Mehmood, Khurram Irshad, Salman Qadir.Whites: Tariq Mehmood (captain), Tariq Rasheed, Aamir Sajjad, Khurram Siddique, Rizwan Aslam,Adnan Usman Khan, Muntazir Mehdi, Irfan Munawar, Saleem Shehzad, Faisal Javed, Attiqur Rehman, Ikramullah (wicketkeeper), Imran Butt, Sajid Ali, Khurram Chuhan, Mudassar Mehboob, Hafiz Azam Khan, Mohammad Asif, Salman Khan, Irfan Sohail. Under-19: Shahnawaz Malik, Umer Javed, Fahadul Haq, Adnan Butt, Wahab Riaz.

James Foster’s second misfortune with injury this season has ruled him out of the remainder of England’s Test series against India.The 22-year-old Essex wicket-keeper broke his left thumb while keeping wicket to John Stephenson in the current Frizzell County Championship match against Glamorgan at Chelmsford. He is expected to be out of action for between four and six weeks.Foster said: “This is a huge blow for me coming so soon after breaking my arm earlier in the season. The early indications are that I could be out for a while, but we will have a clearer idea once I have seen the specialist tomorrow.”Foster, who was given a central contract by England in the spring, was playing in only his third game for Essex this season, after breaking his arm in the nets in April.The injury forced him to miss England’s Test series against Sri Lanka, as well as the recent NatWest triangular series, allowing Surrey’s Alec Stewart to return to England colours. Stewart today made his 119th Test appearance, breaking Graham Gooch’s record as England’s most-capped player.Foster’s latest setback means he will have precious little cricket before England announce their squads for the ICC Champions’ trophy and the Ashes tour of Australia that follows.Foster was the guest on CricInfo’s Norwich Union League live chat feature onTuesday, when he was asked how his arm was feeling. He replied: “It’s prettymuch recovered. In the last championship and one-day game the arm was a bitsore. It’s good enough to play and it’s not ‘end of the world’ pain. I don’talways feel it, and it comes on just through tiredness or weakness in the arm.”It was obviously a huge disappointment breaking it, and it couldn’t have come at a worse time. I missed out on all the good Essex matches like the B&H final, and I missed the chance of playing with England at start of the season. It’s been a tough ten weeks out of action, but now I’m raring to go.”Asked if he felt he was close to getting back into the England set-up for the tour to Australia this winter, he said: “At the moment I’m just trying to do well for Essex and I can’t afford to look too far ahead into the future. If I do well for Essex I hope that people will take notice and I can get back into contention for England again.”Obviously an Ashes tour would be marvellous but I can’t be wrapped up in that – I’ve just got to concentrate on each performance now rather than letting that cloud the issue.”

Queensland moved within 98 runs of hosting next week’s Pura Cup final following another wicket-filled day’s action at the Gabba – leaving the fate of 10,000 meat pies in the balance.Queensland officials have already ordered 10,000 of the pies in anticipation of hosting the five-day final and with the Bulls on the verge of an outright win, they aren’t cancelling the order.At stumps on the second day of a bizarre match, Queensland was 1-66 with first-time captain Martin Love (34) and rookie opener Daniel Payne (16) negotiating 24 crucial overs.Queensland returned to a difficult wicket at 6-64 and was mopped up for 107 with Will Carr claiming a career-best 6-46 and Mathew Inness (4-31) combining tocollect all ten wickets.The Bulls, aware they could miss out on playing in the Pura Cup final without winning outright, did an excellent job in restricting the Bushrangers to 122 in their second innings.But scoring 164 runs on a mind-testing strip which had claimed 30 wickets for 377 runs in less than two days was going to be a hard task.Alarm bells sounded when Queensland lost inexperienced opener Brendan Nash (11) with 17 runs on the board.While Payne battled nerves and the early venom of Carr and Inness, Love calmly took control of the situation and at stumps had steered the Bulls into a position where they could sleep a lot sounder.The wicket has played a part in so many wickets tumbling in two days, but poor shot-making has contributed as well on a deck that has been extremely difficult to master.Take Darren Berry (41), who injured his hand batting, and Jonathon Moss (38) out of the equation and Victoria’s second innings tally was 43.Former Test speedster Michael Kasprowicz exploited the pitch early in Victoria’s second innings and looked very dangerous while an impressive Ashley Noffkestepped in to mop up the tailenders.Kasprowicz’s reward was 3-37 off 16 tight overs while Noffke claimed the last four wickets for his 4-29.Noffke, who removed Berry and Carr for a golden duck with successive deliveries, was denied a shot at a hat-trick with Victoria running out of batsmen.If Queensland go on with job tomorrow they will host their third successive Pura Cup, having won both previously.

Mike Findlay and his fellow selectors should have a relatively simple task when they sit down tomorrow to pick the West Indies team for the opening Cable & Wireless Test against India.Providing that Brian Lara and Ramnaresh Sarwan are recovered and ready to return, five of the top six places are settled Chris Gayle, Sarwan, Lara, captain Carl Hooper and Shivnarine Chanderpaul.The wicket-keeping slot, if barely, should go to the incumbent Ridley Jacobs. It is evident that Jacobs’ keeping has been on the decline and his reliability as a No.7 batsman is also under the microscope, but his overall record and his known qualities as a fighter should be enough for him to retain a place.Two of the fast bowling places are also straightforward, with the new ball going to Mervyn Dillon and Cameron Cuffy.So Findlay and company are essentially only trying to fill the missing link of three players.The existing vacancies are the second opening batsman, the third fast bowler and the individual identified as the fourth specialist bowler.Two weeks ago, I gave you chapter and verse of why we should not revert to Stuart Williams in spite of his record-breaking runs in the Busta Series.It leaves Daren Ganga and Devon Smith as those vying to partner Gayle.Smith has done all that has been asked of him his season, but Ganga, who is yet to transform his seemingly solid technique into significant runs in 15 Tests, which have been spread over three years in six countries, at least deserves a chance to fail at home.Based on what our fast bowlers did in Sharjah and Sri Lanka, one might want to suggest we place some names in a hat and pull one. Whether we tried Pedro Collins, Colin Stuart, Marlon Black, the results were very much the same.Collins and Black are again in contention and are joined by the uncapped Darren Powell and Adam Sanford. Powell, spoken highly of by Andy Roberts, brings a breath of freshness and should strongly challenge Collins for the place.Under normal circumstances, leg-spinner Din-anath Ramnarine should be the preferred choice as the fourth specialist bowler. But, as we saw in Sharjah, the selectors were prepared to leave him out for the first Test and instead opt for a batsman who could bowl to fill the No. 7 slot ahead of Jacobs.The same policy should be applied here.The first name that comes to mind for that position is Ryan Hinds, who in fact, filled the role for his debut Test in Sharjah. As a batsman, Hinds performed with supreme aplomb in his first taste of Test cricket and deserves to be retained. But the fact of the matter is that as long as Lara and Sarwan are back, there is no place from him in the top six.The person coming in at No. 7 is intended to be one who is good enough to play as the fourth bowler. Hinds is a more than useful left-arm spinner for Barbados in regional competitions.I distinctly get the impression, however, that Hooper doesn’t have much faith in him as a bowler and the statistics can back up the point. In his two Tests, he has been given only 21 overs and in five One-Day Internationals he has had 18 overs.Here is where the name of the uncapped Gareth Breese comes into the picture. He is a well-organised batsman with a first-class hundred and his off-spin bowling has been a revelation over the last two seasons.This year, the 26-year-old Jamaican has performed the phenomenal feat of winning four successive Man-of-the-match awards in the Busta Series and his 377 runs (ave. 41.88) and 40 wickets (ave. 19.67) should not go unrecognised.My 13 (with the starting 11 mentioned first), therefore, is: Gayle, Ganga, Sarwan, Lara, Hooper, Chanderpaul, Breese, Jacobs, Dillon, Cuffy, Collins, Powell, and Ryan Hinds.

Nasser Hussain had always maintained that it would be tough, but few could have anticipated such a gruelling day’s cricket. When the sun burnt off the morning cloud cover in Galle, England were forced to endure a day of withering heat as Sri Lanka’s batsmen carefully constructed the foundations of a large first innings score.

Sri Lanka were grateful for winning a crucial toss and began tentatively under cloud cover this morning. Until tea they tempered their natural flamboyance and patiently grafted for their runs. Then, as the rays of the sun took their toll, they started to turn the screw in the final session to finish the day on 221 for two.They did so thanks to the return to form of Marvan Atapattu, whose top score in Sri Lanka’s wretched tour of South Africa was just 20, and Aravinda de Silva, who scored his first half-century in 12 months and 12 Test innings.The 30-year-old Atapattu, who has scored three Test Match double centuries in his career, displayed unflappable concentration in his undefeated six-hour innings and finished the day on 85 from 286 balls. He started doggedly, scoring just three runs from his first 40 balls and taking 160 balls to reach his half-century, but as the day progressed his fluency returned.Sri Lanka were forced to work hard because off Hussain’s frugality and some tight bowling in trying conditions. Hussain had warned before the Test Match, “we have to have control,” and true to his word he refused to give Sri Lanka easy runs. The fast bowlers plodded away for much of the day with only one slip and the spinners were well protected too. Andrew Caddick, nearly jettisoned in favour of seven batsmen, proved the thriftiest of the bowlers, conceding a mere 13 runs from his 16 overs.But, Sri Lanka were wise to England’s plans. They knew that Hussain views defense as a form of attack and spoke before the game about the need for patience. Should they bat for two days England would be drained, Muttiah Muralitharan could be fully fit, and the pitch would be like a dustbowl. So far, it is all going to plan.Speaking after the game Dav Whatmore said: “That was a good opening day to the series for us. It was more like a traditional day of Test cricket with the batsmen having to work hard for their runs. Having lost just two wickets we end up on top, but we are keen to go on. We don’t want to have bat again on this pitch, which will be very hard to bat on in a couple of days.”We spoke before the match a bit a out the need for patience, given the natural flair of our batsmen, and focused on the need for the batsmen, having made a start, to go on and get the maximum from it.”Heavy overnight rain last night left moisture in the air this morning. The steamy conditions appeared ideal for swing bowlers, but England’s fast bowlers could not bend it off the straight and narrow.Even so they accounted for Sanath Jayasuriya in just the fifth over of the innings. The dynamic left-hander laced three boundaries in his breezy 14, but then picked out Craig White in the gully with his favourite forcing stroke.Kumar Sangakkara and Marvan Atapattu then added 92 runs for the second wicket. Sangakkara made 58 of them in a free flowing innings to record his third Test half-century and his second in successive innings after scoring a valiant 98 in Centurion, South Africa.Sangakkara had used his feet impressively to the spin of Ashley Giles and Robert Croft, but in the 44th over of the innings he came down the wicket, misjudged a delivery from Croft and drove straight to Craig White at extra cover.The proved to be the last England succes as Aravinda de Silva provided the perfect foil for the steadfast Atapattu. The pair added 111 till the close, though they both though enjoyed some fortune.When Atapattu had made 46 he gloved a ball from Ashley Giles that lifted tantalisingly close to the outstretched hand of Marcus Trescothick at silly point. Aravinda De Silva survived a chance when he was dropped on 20 by Thorpe in the gully and then was close to being run out when on 48.Aravinda de Silva was particularly bullish in the evening session. He pulled Craig White in characteristic style, lofted Croft for successive boundaries and cut Caddick imperiously as the day drew to a close, much to the annoyance of the Somerset fast bowler, who perversely felt the need to give De Silva a sarcastic hand clap for his efforts.Duncan Fletcher admitted afterwards that it was a good toss to win: “I think it was a very good toss to win on a pitch that was very flat on the first day. I don’t know how it will hold up on the fourth or fifth day.”Despite only taking two wickets in the day, Fletcher was impressed with the performance of the bowlers: “It would be nice if they were four down, but I think you have to compliment the bowlers for their discipline on a flat wicket. It is difficult to bowl here especially in that humidity and you have to appreciate that in England we do not play on wickets like that.”

With only their pride to play for, the West Indies selectors have made one change to the team which lost to South Africa in Trinidad by 53 runs on Saturday. The tourists currently embroiled in controversy surrounding off the field celebrations in Antigua, hold an unassailable 5-1 lead in the seven game series.Guyanese left-arm spinner, Neil McGarrell, returns to the line up in place of Dinanath Ramnarine. Make shift opener, Ricardo Powell still can’t find a place in the final eleven.The West Indies team for the final Cable & Wireless One-Day International against South Africa tomorrow at Arnos Vale Playing Field in St. Vincent is as follows:Carl Hooper (captain), Chris Gayle, Daren Ganga, ShivnarineChanderpaul, Brian Lara, Marlon Samuels, Ridley Jacobs, Neil McGarrell,Cameron Cuffy, Kerry Jeremy and Corey Collymore.EMERGENCY FIELDERS:Mervyn Dillon, Dinanath Ramnarine and Ricardo Powell.

Australia’s Test offspinner Nathan Lyon will captain South Australia in their opening Sheffield Shield match of the season in the absence of the new skipper Johan Botha. Lyon and the state’s new opener Phillip Hughes have been named as joint vice-captains for the coming season under Botha, who will miss the first match as he is in Sri Lanka as part of South Africa’s squad for the World Twenty20.South Australia take on Queensland at the Gabba in a match starting on Monday, and it will not only be an opportunity for Lyon to test his leadership but also for Hughes to make his mark in his first game as a Redbacks player having switched from New South Wales. The uncapped allrounder Sam Miller is expected to make his debut and the fast bowler Daniel Worrall has also been named and could debut.They were chosen in the squad ahead of the better-known duo of Kane Richardson and Peter George, who are both fit but had their pre-season form deemed inferior to that of Miller and Worrall.”Miller has been a really interesting one because he wasn’t in our original state squad, he was in the emerging Redbacks squad,” South Australia’s coach Darren Berry said. “When we were up in Darwin, Miller was playing the off-season up there so myself and Jeff Vaughan went and watched him play and we were so impressed with what we saw, we invited him to join us for what was the last month of preparation.”We took him to Brisbane [for pre-season matches] and he was the standout player against quality opposition. It’s a great story. He’s jumped ahead of a lot of people and that’s what we’re about; we will reward performance and people doing the right things. Worrall is a nippy fast-bowler with a bit of an old fashioned, angled approach to the wicket. He’s a very aggressive type of player. Throughout the pre-season he’s been a standout bowler in the group.”South Australia are aiming to turn their four-day form around after a miserable 2011-12 season, in which they didn’t win a Sheffield Shield match and finished on the bottom of the table. They won’t find it easy against the reigning champions Queensland, who have named Usman Khawaja and Nathan Hauritz in their 12-man squad after the pair moved from New South Wales in the off-season.There was no room for the emerging batsman Chris Lynn, who impressed during his first couple of seasons with Queensland but had a disappointing summer in 2011-12 and averaged 19.69 from eight Sheffield Shield appearances. Also gone from the 12 that defeated Tasmania in the Shield final are the fast bowlers Ryan Harris (shoulder injury) and Steve Magoffin (moved to England) and the batsman Alex Kemp.Queensland squad Wade Townsend, Andrew Robinson, Usman Khawaja, Peter Forrest, Joe Burns, James Hopes (capt), Chris Hartley (wk), Nathan Hauritz, Ben Cutting, Cameron Boyce, Luke Feldman, Alister McDermott.South Australia squad Phillip Hughes, Michael Klinger, Callum Ferguson, Travis Head, Tom Cooper, Sam Miller, Tim Ludeman (wk), Joe Mennie, Chadd Sayers, Nathan Lyon (capt), Daniel Worrall, Gary Putland.