All posts by csb10.top

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.”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.”

Stumps
Scorecard
Moeen Ali pushed Worcestershire into a promising position with a solid 92•Getty Images

This season may not end with open-top bus rides and trophy-laden celebrations, but Worcestershire is a club with much to look forward to over the coming years.While their bowling attack remains somewhat uncomfortably over-reliant on seamers of advanced years, the club possesses some of the most exciting young batting talent in the country.It was a point made abundantly clear on the second day at New Road as Moeen Ali and Matt Pardoe batted together. Moeen, a 23-year-old who has just committed to Worcestershire until the end of the 2013 season, and Pardoe, a 20-year-old graduate of the county’s academy, earned their side a first-innings lead of 174 and a great chance of inflicting a first County Championship win over their local rivals since 2000. Never have they beaten them in Division One.With both men, it was the shots they did not play that were as impressive as those they did. On a pitch that continues to provide copious assistance to bowlers and against an attack that tested them with pace, bounce, movement and verbal ‘advice’, both young men were admirably compact in technique and composed in approach.Moeen, who left Warwickshire to join Worcestershire at the end of the 2006 season, has a reputation as something of a dasher: elegant outside off stump, but always likely to keep the slip cordon interested.Here, however, he showed admirable patience, left the ball with discipline and, in scoring off only 41 of the 162 deliveries he faced, the defensive technique to add to his flair. It’s not that he’s lost the ability to put away the bad ball – he brought up his 50 with a gorgeous four driven through extra-cover and followed it up with an equally well-timed on-drive next delivery – but he’s tightened up his technique appreciably. As he put it, “sometimes you grow up.” He fell eight short of a well-deserved century, edging a quicker delivery from Ant Botha to slip, but, in the context of this match, his 92 was monumental.Pardoe’s patience was the most noticeable characteristic of his innings. He scored off only 25 of the 142 deliveries he faced but, in between times, demonstrated a pleasing cover drive as well as the ability to slog the long-hops over midwicket. On such a testing surface, this was a fine effort.Warwickshire, however, continued to bowl far too short. Perhaps seduced by the pace and carry available, all four of Warwickshire’s seamers failed to bring the batsmen forward or make them play enough.Though Boyd Rankin, the towering Irish fast bowler, finished with the fourth five-wicket haul of his first-class career, it could have been even better. At times, Rankin was quite unplayable. He claimed the wicket of Alexei Kervezee, another in Worcestershire’s battery of supremely talented young batsmen, with a beast of a ball that reared off a length and struck the batsman’s glove on its way to second slip. He then ended Vikram Solanki’s pleasing innings when the batsman pushed at one outside off stump and Pardoe eventually edged one angled across him. The suspicion remains, however, that had Rankin and co pitched the ball up more often, Worcestershire would have struggled to reach 250.”If you pitch the ball in the right areas, it still does a lot,” Moeen confirmed afterwards. “So you just need to be patient. Matt Pardoe did that really well.”A couple of years ago, I probably would have nicked off. But sometimes you grow up, don’t you? I really enjoyed batting against good fast bowlers in testing conditions and maybe Warwickshire bowled a bit short. It was a tough day, but very enjoyable.”I’m really pleased to have sorted out my contract situation. I enjoy the responsibility I have at Worcestershire and I enjoy being one of the senior batters.”Warwickshire earned themselves a lifeline in the evening session. Varun Chopra, who really is in golden touch at present, batted quite beautifully in dominating an unbroken opening stand of 76 with Ian Westwood, reducing the arrears to 98 by stumps.Worcestershire were, perhaps, as guilty as Warwickshire had been of bowling too short. But the timing of Chopra’s back-foot stokes, especially his drives, was deeply impressive and suggested that the former England U19 captain could yet enjoy a future in international cricket.The ease with which Warwickshire negotiated what might have proved an uncomfortable 24-over session, may also have unsettled Worcestershire a little. While the hosts would, no doubt, have settled for a lead of almost 100 going into the third day, it may well play on their minds that they surrendered a similarly strong position against Yorkshire in their first game of the season. To lose one match from such a position might be regarded as unfortunate; to lose two might well prove fatal.

Match Facts

March 10, Pallekele
Start time 2.30pm (0900 GMT)Zimbabwe need more from their top order to stand a chance against Sri Lanka•Getty Images

The Big Picture

Like all four major Test nations in Group A, Sri Lanka are on course to progress to the quarter-finals without any serious problems, and the chances of Zimbabwe providing an upset to create a modicum of the excitement witnessed in the other group is slim to none. However, for Sri Lanka it’s an ideal time to produce a commanding all-round performance and build momentum ahead of the quarter-finals.There is a feeling that Sri Lanka haven’t quite clicked yet. They have eased past Canada and Kenya – the latter thanks to Lasith Malinga’s hat-trick – but came unstuck against Pakistan with an 11-run defeat. The clash against Australia was shaping up to be a cracker when the rain came and interrupted a well-paced innings by Kumar Sangakkara and denied the spinners their chance to shine.Zimbabwe shouldn’t provide many problems having suffered a 10-wicket hammering at the hands of New Zealand in their last game. Their batting has lacked consistency and will face a tough examination from whichever combination of spinners Sri Lanka opt to field, while there’s Malinga’s toe-crushes to overcome as well. Ray Price and Prosper Utseya are good spinners themselves but desperately need the batsmen to back them up.

Form guide

(completed matches, most recent first)
Sri Lanka WLWWW
ZimbabweLWLLL

Watch out for…

Ajantha Mendis may have been worked out by some of the top international teams, but against lower-ranked opponents his unique variety of wrist and finger spin still proves a handful. He surprisingly went wicketless against Kenya, did not play against Pakistan and took just one wicket against Canada. He’ll hope for a chance to make his mark on the World Cup and build confidence ahead of the knockout stages, but faces competition for his place from left-arm spinner Rangana Herath.Elton Chigumbura needs to lead from the front. The captain has struggled so far with three low scores and it means Zimbabwe’s middle order is lacking someone to either rebuild after early problems or increase the scoring rate later on. Chigumbura has the talent to be a major run-scorer which is why his lean World Cup is such a frustration, and perhaps the stresses of captaincy are weighing on his shoulders. Conditions haven’t proved conducive to his medium-pace, either, which makes it even more important that he delivers with the bat.

Team news

If Sri Lanka want three spinners in their XI again it means the new ball is either in the hands of one of them or Angelo Mathews. With Malinga also more of a threat with the older ball it can leave Sri Lanka a little light early on so it may be an opportunity to assess the balance of their team. Mahela Jayawardene hinted that Dilhara Fernando could earn his first outing although Nuwan Kulasekara provides more batting.Sri Lanka (possible) 1 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 2 Upul Tharanga, 3 Kumar Sangakkara (wk) 4 Mahela Jayawardene, 5 Thilan Samaraweera, 6 Chamara Silva, 7 Angelo Mathews, 8 Nuwan Kulasekara, 9 Lasith Malinga, 10 Ajantha Mendis, 11 Muttiah MuralitharanThere aren’t really many options for Zimbabwe to strengthen their team so it’s a case of asking for better from what they already have. The pitch in Pallekele offered some assistance to the seamers during Tuesday’s match between New Zealand and Pakistan, and Chigumbura said they may play one or two seamers although Chris Mpofu is carrying a side strain so is doubtful.Zimbabwe (probable) 1 Brendan Taylor, 2 Charles Coventry, 3 Tatenda Taibu (wk), 4 Craig Ervine, 5 Elton Chigumbura (capt), 6 Regis Chakabva, 7 Greg Lamb, 8 Prosper Utseya, 9 Graeme Cremer, 10 Ray Price, 11 Tinashe Panyangara

Pitch and conditions

Pallekelle will be staging its second ODI following the match between Pakistan and New Zealand. Ross Taylor didn’t have many problems with the conditions – and comfortably cleared the ropes – but batting proved trickier under lights when the ball zipped around.

Stats and trivia

• Thirteen of the 16 wickets Zimbabwe have taken at the World Cup have gone to their spinners
• Compared to their record against some other major nations, Zimbabwe have had their moments against Sri Lanka with seven victories in 46 ODIs, with the most recent an eight-wicket win at Harare last June.

Quotes

“If we keep our wickets in hand, I’m sure we can handle them a bit better. But if we lose wickets first up then it is going to be hard for us to come back in the game.”
Elton Chigumbura says it is Zimbabwe’s top order that needs most improvement”It’s such a big and long tournament it’s important that we be consistent and try and get better and better going forward because you get big games and tough games coming in a few weeks.”
Mahela Jaywardene is keen to build some momentum ahead of the knockouts

Peter Drinnen, the Netherlands coach, has warned his players not to read too much into their shock World Twenty20 victory against England when they launch their World Cup campaign against the same opponents in Nagpur. Netherlands won that famous match at Lord’s off the last ball by four wickets and six members of the team are still part of the squad, but Drinnen has stressed to his players the difference between 20- and 50-over cricket.”The big thing is at times we can get ahead of ourselves,” Drinnen said “We lack the knowledge of batting in the 50-over cricket. We need to special attention to that.” Not that Drinnen wants the Dutch to forget their maiden triumph against a full member nation. He said they can take plenty of pointers from their victory at Lord’s.”Certainly half the squad were there on that evening and they are fully aware of what is possible on any given day. I know it was a shorter version but they are going to take quite a bit of confidence out of that victory into this. I have got no doubt their confidence will spread through the group and rub off all the players.”Netherlands have been preparing for the World Cup for three weeks including a preparatory camp in Dubai followed by three warm-up matches in Sri Lanka. They won the last n against Kenya having lost the first two to Canada and Sri Lanka respectively and Drinnen believes he has a balanced squad at his disposal.”We have got a good top order. Our bowling attack is not youthful in age and probably is and inexperienced attack,” he said. “The way they have progressed in the last six months is significant. The challenge is going to be great as the wickets are flat. Bowlers know they really have to be disciplined.”If Netherlands want to improve their World Cup record, where they have managed just two victories out of 14 matches spread across the three editions, much would depend on the performances of the senior players like Bas Zuiderent, Tim de Grooth, Peter Borren and Essex allrounder Ryan ten Doeschate. “If we put up a performance we know we are capable of, we know we can cause some problems,” Drinnen said.Drinnen also cleared up doubts over the availability of Borren, the captain, who had been sidelined in the warm-up matches and could not attend the opening ceremony after suffering from a side strain but today he had his first complete workout. “He is fit but still carrying side strain. He has trained very well, had a full hit out in the field and full hit out with the bat today. We are happy with his progress. I’m confident looking at how he has performed today and he will be fine for the match.”

ScorecardSouthern Rocks picked up a point from their match against Mountaineers at the Mutare Sports Club in a rain-affected match. With rain washing out the first day and most of the third, a result was never on the cards, but Rocks ensured they got something from the game by bowling Mountaineers out for 218 on the fourth day, 41 runs short of their own first-innings score.Mountaineers started the last day at 77 for 2 and were soon 84 for 3. They continued to lose wickets at regular intervals, with the 46-run stand between Hamilton Masakadza and Mark Vermeulen the highest of the innings. Rocks seamer Brian Vitori and legspinner Tafadzwa Kamungozi took four wickets each.Having secured the point, Rocks had some batting practice and Tatenda Taibu and Steve Marillier helped themselves to half-centuries. Neither of them had scored much in the first innings, but Stuart Matsikenyeri’s 64 and contributions from Sikandar Raza and Tafadzwa Kamungozi down the order had taken Rocks to a respectable total.Meanwhile, the match between Mid West Rhinos and Matabeleland Tuskers in Kwekwe was abandoned without a ball bowled due to a wet outfield.

Luke Fairweather, who played twice for Western Province in the apartheid years and was manager of the province’s junior team, died after being shot in the stomach during an altercation with a traffic officer. He was 49.Witnesses said Fairweather got into a row with Ian Sinclair outside Newlands when Sinclair issued a parking ticket to his mother’s car. The pair quickly became embroiled in a heated argument and started fighting, and during the struggle Fairweather was shot. Such was the ferocity of the brawl that a car windscreen was smashed when Sinclair was allegedly thrown against it.Fairweather was rushed to hospital but died a few hours later. Sinclair, who also had to be treated in hospital, was charged with murder and released on bail.An eyewitness told the Weekend Argus Sinclair had been watching cricket when he spotted the illegally-parked vehicle. “He left the group, went to the motorist and was busy writing her a ticket, when the victim arrived. There was an exchange of words, after which Fairweather got into his vehicle. He was about to reverse, when he stopped the car and got out again.”A police spokesman took up the story. “The woman’s son [Fairweather] … started arguing with the traffic officer. He started to push the traffic officer around and assaulted him. He smashed the traffic officer’s head into the parked vehicle. The traffic officer warned him to stop. In between the fighting [Fairweather] was shot at several times,”Fairweather had been a guest in the Western Province Cricket Association president’s box during the Test between South Africa and India when the incident occurred. “This news defies belief and the cricket fraternity is in deep shock,” WPCA president Mohamed Ebrahim said.

Brendan Nash, the West Indies vice-captain, said taking early wickets was the key to West Indies’ push for a win against Sri Lanka in the first Test at Galle. Nash scored 64 and shared a record fourth-wicket partnership of 167 with triple-century maker Chris Gayle to strengthen West Indies’ position.”We are on top at the moment, 500-plus ahead,” Nash said. “Sri Lanka is used to scoring big runs so we have to be tight. We have a young bowling attack, experience-wise. On this sort of wicket with the batsmen to come, we have to be really on our game and stick to our game plan. Early wickets are the key and the spinners are going to play a big part as their spinners did. There’s not much in it for the seam bowlers.”Nash said that it was a privilege batting with Gayle who went on to make a career-best 333. Gayle became the highest scoring West Indian batsman in the subcontinent and the fourth batsman in history to make two triple-hundreds. “Chris really summed it up quite well. He knew when to attack and when to pull back a little bit,” Nash said. “That was maybe (because of) the way the wicket played, and they bowled very well in patches.”We didn’t have target in mind but I tried to keep him going. The conditions for him were changing. He’s been out there from ball one and I tried to just keep him mentally going and physically tried to hold him up.” Nash said the few targets West Indies had set for themselves they had met but expressed disappointment the way the last five wickets were lost.Spinner Ajantha Mendis captured five wickets for 13 runs off 46 balls to trigger a West Indies collapse. He ended with six wickets for 169. “Mendis bowled very well. We sort of have to look at him and work out a bit of a game plan against him when the wickets breaking up a little bit and a bit drier.”Probably the runs we would have liked a little more but Sri Lanka slowed the game down very well. Tactically they played very well. The amount of overs we batted were right because we wanted to keep the game moving forward and didn’t want it to peter out to be a draw. That’s why we set ourselves how many overs we wanted to bat and we wanted a few more runs admittedly but it was good in a way we batted to all our targets.”

Leeward Islands grabbed the second semi-final berth from Group B with their first victory in the tournament, a 14-run win against Guyana in the rain-affected fixture at Sabina Park.A damp pitch at the scheduled start of play curtailed the game to 46-overs-a-side, the first of many weather-induced revisions. Guyana chose to field, but play was stopped after three balls when Esuan Crandon raised concerns about the area where his left foot was landing. The officials then decided to shift the game to an adjacent wicket, reducing it to 40 overs per innings.Leewards resumed aggressively, with the opening partnership raising 38 off 31 balls before Javier Liburd fell to Steven Jacobs for a lively 16. The middle order was unable to consolidate on the start with Chesney Hughes, Steve Liburd and Gavin Williams perishing for a combined contribution of three runs off 29 balls, Jacobs adding two more wickets to his tally. The losses forced opener Montcin Hodge to go into his shell as he attempted to repair the innings. He contributed 31 off 61 balls, as Wilden Cornwall arrested the slide at the other end with 22 off 33, but the fall of both batsmen before the 25th over, with the score yet to reach three figures, left Leewards in a tight spot.Jahmar Hamilton then revived the innings with an attacking 37 off 27 balls. He hit four sixes and a four in his knock, and, aided by contributions from Justin Athanaze, Lionel Baker and Anthony Martin, propelled his side to a strong score. Guyana missed a trick after the ninth wicket fell in the 34th over, allowing the last pair to add 30 runs before finishing the innings in the final over.Guyana’s reply ran into trouble after a brief surge from Richard Ramdeen: 19 for 0 turned into 28 for 5 in no time as Gavin Tonge and Martin nipped out five wickets in as many overs. Showers held up play again in the tenth over, leaving Guyana in an unfavourable position with regards the D/L par scores. On resumption, Shivnarine Chanderpaul held one end up while Royston Crandon attacked for 43 off 59 balls, but Guyana still fell 14 short of the par score at 23 overs when the match ended.While Leewards managed to win despite several interruptions, there was no such luck for Sagicor High Performance Center who were in a dominant position against table-toppers Barbados when play was called off at the Trelawny Stadium. The result meant Sagicor finished their group engagements winless, but a victory would have left them tied on points with Leewards.Asked to bat first in a 40-overs-a-side game, Sagicor were guided by Rajindra Chandrika’s patient half-century. He struck three fours in his 52 off 89 balls before being run-out. The other significant contribution came from Devon Thomas who made 31 off 30 balls, includng two fours and a six, as Sagicor finished with 154 for 5.Barbados’ chase was rocked early as Jason Holder and Veerasammy Permaul picked up a wicket each, while two batsmen succumbed to run-outs, reducing the score to 19 for 4. However, it began to rain in the 12th over after which no play was possible, resulting in a washout.

Semi-final line-up

Leeward Islands v Windward Islands at Kingston on October 21
Barbados v Jamaica at Greenfields on October 22

Intikhab Alam, the former Pakistan captain, who takes over from Yawar Saeed as manager of the Pakistan team for the series against South Africa beginning later this month, believes that managing the Pakistan team is not an easy job, especially in the wake of the spot-fixing scandal.”My job will be to make sure that everything is okay in the UAE,”Alam told the . “We will try our best to enhance the image of the Pakistan cricket team.”Alam, 68, is not new to the job – he has been a track-suited manager/coach on many Pakistan tours from 1982-92, including the 1992 World Cup that Pakistan won. He was also Pakistan’s coach during their disastrous tour of Australia in 2009-10 where Pakistan lost all their matches – three Tests, five ODIs and one Twenty20 game.Alam had launched a scathing attack on Pakistan’s cricketers after that tour, calling them “mentally retarded” when he was questioned by a PCB inquiry committee. But Alam believed that would have no negative impact on his relations with the players in his new role.”The whole thing was blown out of proportion. During the probe, I just questioned the players’ cricketing sense. As the team’s coach, I think it was my duty to do so.”Alam was replaced by Waqar Younis as Pakistan’s coach after the Australia tour. He was then appointed as the head of Pakistan’s National Cricket Academy. Despite his vast experience, Alam said he would not interfere with the coaching staff. “It will be the team’s coaches who will take care of the cricketing side. I’ll be there as a guiding hand but my main job will be to manage the team and that’s it.”I know Waqar well, I know Aaqib [Javed] well. I’ve worked with the coaching staff before and I have a very good understanding with them.” Former Pakistan fast bowler Javed is the team’s assistant coach.Pakistan play two Twenty20 games, five ODIs and two Tests against South Africa in Abu Dhabi and Dubai. Alam warned, that despite Pakistan’s familiarity with the conditions in the UAE, South Africa would not be easy opponents. “South Africa are a very professional side. We will have to do our homework and I’m sure that the coach and captain will ensure that.”The tour begins on October 26 with the first Twenty20 game that will be played on at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi.

Aleem Dar, the Pakistan umpire, has been named Umpire of the Year at the ICC Awards ceremony in Bangalore. He has won this award – named the David Shepherd Trophy – for the second time in successive years. The other nominees in the category were Steve Davis, Tony Hill and five-time winner Simon Taufel.Dar, 42, was voted by the captains of the ten full members of the ICC and the eight-man elite panel of ICC’s match referees for the period August 24, 2009 to August 10, 2010. Their choice was based on his decision statistics and officiating skills over the past 12 months.After collecting his trophy from match referee Chris Broad, Dar said: “I think the fact that I’m still playing cricket in Pakistan makes me a good umpire. In the last four times I’ve played cricket I’ve scored centuries so I definitely think that has helped.”