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Will Pucovski was finally dismissed – for 202 – then Shaun Marsh scored another hundred

Daniel Brettig09-Nov-2020Cameron Green appeared set to deliver a strong riposte to Will Pucovski’s second double century in as many Sheffield Shield innings for Victoria, before spinner Jon Holland intervened with a spell that demonstrated that assistance was in fact available from the pitch at Karen Rolton Oval, just not so much for the West Australian all-seam attack.WA’s captain Shaun Marsh, with his third century of the season, was left in the company of the nightwatchman Matthew Kelly after Holland’s twin strike in the final session, finding appreciable turn alongside admirable economy in the sort of display he had been unable to deliver first up against South Australia at Glenelg.Victoria’s skipper Peter Handscomb had set the game up nicely with an enterprising declaration before lunch, showing that he had perhaps learned from a couple of recent failures to defeat South Australia outright on flat surfaces when his team had run up enormous first innings tallies that had nonetheless eaten into the time available to bowl the opposition out twice.Handscomb fell short of his own century, having witnessed Pucovski make it as far as 202 before flicking a catch to midwicket, giving him a Shield average of 457 from his two innings so far – numbers of the sort the Australian team coach Justin Langer had demanded in order to force a change to a settled Test match batting line-up. He was the first batsman to make back-to-back double hundreds in the Shield since Dene Hills in 1997-98.The short session before lunch proved highly fruitful for the Victorians, as Scott Boland delivered a beauty from around the wicket to find the edge of a pushing Sam Whiteman, which Handscomb snapped up expertly in the slips. On the stroke of the interval, Cameron Bancroft was pinned lbw in front of all three stumps by the young paceman Mitch Perry, despite his apparent annoyance at the decision.Marsh and Green then accumulated soundly against the seamers, the latter commendably upright and straight as he has been in so many innings of his young career, and with their stand worth 141 inside the final hour, the Warriors looked set to be well established for day three.However, Holland had dropped onto a tantalising length that prevented free scoring while also teasing the outside edge of the bat, and after several of his left-arm orthodox deliveries spun nicely away from Green, the 21-year-old was eventually beaten by the perfect ball, pitching in line with middle and leg before turning enough to sail to slip off the edge.Hilton Cartwright, once considered a potential international allrounder in the manner Green is currently being feted, soon followed in more spectacular manner, playing back to a ball that popped and turned sharply, flying more or less straight up in the air off the shoulder of the bat for Handscomb to claim his third catch out of four.These wickets will have made a mark as much by their manner as by the changes to the scoreboard, after WA had named an all-pace bowling unit in their XI and then granted Victoria first batting use of a surface now clearly friendly to spin.

Three days after being skittled for 40 in a Championship defeat to Essex, Kent grab defeat from the jaws of victory

ECB Reporters Network23-Aug-2019Kent Spitfires suffered their second batting calamity of the week as they tossed away a winning position to lose their Vitality Blast South Group qualifier to Surrey by one run at shell-shocked Canterbury.Just three days after being skittled for 40 in a County Championship defeat to Essex, Kent grabbed defeat from the jaws of victory to suffer their fourth reverse and their first on home soil in this year’s T20 tournament.Chasing 172 at a tough asking rate of 8.6 an over for their seventh win of the campaign, Kent openers Zak Crawley and Daniel Bell-Drummond smashed 19 off Jordan Clark’s third over.Clark’s misery was compounded when he dropped Bell-Drummond off a skier at cover in the next over from Jade Dernbach as Kent’s openers posted 50 in five overs.Crawley raced to his maiden T20 fifty with two fours and three sixes as the Spitfires pair posted their century stand in 9.5 overs as Kent swept 26 runs ahead of Surrey’s midpoint score.Bell-Drummond reached his 19th career T20 half-century from 32 balls and with seven fours but their stand was finally broken for 115 when Mohammad Tahir had Crawley stumped for 59.With 18 required from 12 balls, Bell-Drummond went for 64 when his sliced drive against Dernbach flew to backward point to heap pressure on Alex Blake and Heino Kuhn.Blake upper-cut his third ball to deep point leaving Sam Billings and Kuhn to score 12 off the last over from Sam Curran, but it was Curran who held his nerve by conceding nine off the bat to give Surrey a surprise fourth Vitality Blast win.After a forceful start, Surrey stumbled mid-innings when Kent took pace off the ball, then plundered quick runs at the death through a barrage of Will Jacks sixes on their way to posting 171 for 7.Aaron Finch, who hit 83 here last July at a strike rate of 218.42 – only for the match to be abandoned to rain – clattered 18 off the second over of the night from Kent T20 debutant Matt Milnes but, with 25 to his name, miscued a Fred Klaassen slower ball back to the bowler.Surrey reached 49 for 1 by the end of the Powerplay, after which Spitfires brought on first-team debutant Marcus O’Riordan, a 21-year-old off-spinner whose excellent opening over cost only five runs.Kent turned to spin at both ends with the introduction of left-arm spinner Imran Qayyum who had Curran caught at cow corner with his second ball.Surrey lost further impetus when Bell-Drummond yorked Mark Stoneman, Qayyum squeezed one between the bat and pad to bowl Ben Foakes and then had Ollie Pope stumped by Ollie Robinson as Surrey raised their 100 in the 15th over.Qayyum finished his four overs with 3 for 22, after which Hardus Viljoen returned to pluck out middle stump via a bottom edge as Clark aimed to cut.Jacks clattered eight sixes late in the piece on his way to 63 off 27 balls before biffing Klaassen’s last ball of the innings into the hands of long off, even so, Surrey’s total appeared a little below par.

The Committee of Administrators has ruled that the BCCI can press criminal charges against players found to be indulging in age fraud

ESPNcricinfo staff19-Jul-2018The Committee of Administrators (CoA) has ruled that players submitting false and tampered-with birth certificates as part of the age-verification processes for BCCI tournaments will now be banned for two years and could also face criminal action from the BCCI.At a meeting in Delhi in May, the CoA deliberated on the existing penalties for such an offence and decided that with a due mechanism to identify such fraud, the ban period should be doubled from the existing one-year period. Age-fudging is a prominent feature in India’s domestic system, particularly in age-group cricket, where parents and even coaches encourage the practice despite the risks of being found out. The loss of two years of top-level cricket, along with the danger of legal charges, the CoA hopes, will serve as a deterrent to any such attempts by players.Under the Indian legal system, it is a criminal offence to provide false birth certificates. The BCCI has now decided to adopt the same penalty wherever applicable. “Players who are found [after a proper enquiry] to have submitted false/tampered birth certificates will be banned from all BCCI tournaments for two seasons,” the CoA said as per the minutes of the May 18 meeting. “BCCI may also initiate criminal action against the concerned player and/or any other person responsible for submitting false/tampered birth certificates.”The decision comes almost three years after the current coach of the India Under-19s and A teams, Rahul Dravid, had called for a regulation at the state and academy levels to stop the “scourge of overage players” in his MAK Pataudi lecture, adding that age-fudging was just as bad as fixing.”The truth is that the player who has faked his age might make it at the junior level not necessarily because he is better or more talented, but because he is stronger and bigger. We all know how much of a difference a couple of years can make at that age. That incident will have another ripple effect: an honest player, deprived of his place by an overage player, is disillusioned. We run the risk of losing him forever,” Dravid had said during the lecture.At the time, bone-density tests were the only measure of determining a player’s age. A centralised database of birth certificates, Dravid had said, would be the way to tackle the issue.

The PCB has sent a notice of dispute to the BCCI for not fulfilling the MoU signed in 2014 for fixtures between Pakistan and India during the period 2015 to 2023

Umar Farooq03-May-2017The PCB has sent a notice of dispute to the BCCI for not fulfilling the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) the boards had signed in 2014 for fixtures between Pakistan and India during the period 2015 to 2023.The Pakistan board claimed it incurred losses because the BCCI did not agree to a tour in December 2015, and though it did not disclose amounts, two series against India were worth $80 million in the board’s previous TV deal.The PCB wanted to take a legal route but according to the ICC Dispute Resolution Committee’s terms of reference an ICC member should exercise Clause 5, which covers good-faith negotiations, and make three attempts to resolve the dispute.According to the terms of reference, the BCCI has seven days to respond to the PCB. A positive response will lead to a meeting between officials from both boards to try and settle the issue. A failure to find a solution would then result in the matter being referred to the ICC dispute resolution committee, which will form a panel to hear the case.The PCB also confirmed Pakistan would not tour India in 2018 as scheduled in the FTP because the cycle of bilateral fixtures had to start with Pakistan as hosts.The notice of dispute was sent to the BCCI after the PCB was encouraged by the ICC awarding six points to the Pakistan Women’s team because the BCCI had failed to establish “acceptable reasons” for not participating in a bilateral series, which was part of the ICC Women’s Championship.The PCB and BCCI had signed an MoU in 2014 to play six bilateral series between 2015 and 2023. Four of those series were to be hosted by Pakistan and the six series included up to 14 Tests, 30 ODIs and 12 T20Is. The cycle was scheduled to start with Pakistan hosting two Tests and five ODIs at a mutually acceptable venue, but the BCCI did not agree to the series.India and Pakistan have not played a full series since the 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai, which the Indian government blamed on militants based in Pakistan. The teams last played a full series in 2007, in India. Pakistan, however, visited India for a limited-over series in December 2012, which was seen as a stepping stone to reviving cricketing ties between the countries.The PCB and BCCI made an attempt to play in December 2015, with Sri Lanka as a possible venue for the series. Leadership from both boards met in Dubai with ECB president Giles Clarke as mediator, but as the date approached the BCCI remained unresponsive towards PCB and the series was scrapped without official confirmation from India.

The last time South Africa were in Nagpur they lost a Test in three days and with it their No 1 status, but they are pleased to be back with West Indies their next World Twenty20 opponents

Firdose Moonda23-Mar-2016Given what happened to South Africa the last time they were in Nagpur, in November 2015, you would think it is the last place they would want to return to. Especially so soon. But you would be wrong.”That was a Test match and this was T20 cricket. It’s a totally different format,” said Imran Tahir, who was part of the South Africa side that lost by 124 runs and in so doing lost the series and their No.1 ranking. “And if you look at our record in T20 cricket, we’ve been pretty solid and playing really good cricket for the last year and a half. That gives us a lot of confidence.”Even those who were on the trip, like coach Russell Domingo, are not haunted by the ghosts of four months ago. “At least the Test match was only three days so the memories don’t last too long,” Domingo joked, preferring to remember a happier time in Nagpur in 2011. “South Africa played a World Cup game here and chased 300 against India. Some of the guys from then are in this squad so there are some good memories.”South Africa’s attack have had their fill of the batsmen-friendly Wankhede and would prefer something that does not work against them as much. Nagpur’s deck does not immediately resemble their kind of surface and Domingo has even used the loaded word “interesting” to describe it. He hopes South Africa will have an advantage because of one man. “Imran Tahir on good wickets is a handful. Hopefully on a wicket that assists him, he will be a matchwinner,” Domingo said.Tahir himself did well to brush off any added expectation, especially in the absence of South Africa’s part-time spin option JP Duminy, who has been ruled out through injury. “There is no pressure on me. We’ve got players in the squad who can cover him,” he said.Aaron Phangiso seems certain to get a game, his first since he remodelled his action after it was declared illegal and he will be battling nerves of his own. Not only will Phangiso be playing international cricket for the first time in five months but he will have to do it against a line-up that will include Chris Gayle.Domingo had some calming words for his left-arm spinner, based on the conditions. “West Indies are probably the most powerful batting unit in the world in terms of six hitting but this is a big field and this slow wicket might nullify that strength,” he said. “We’ve got no issues with the wicket. We’ve got two world-class spinners in Imran Tahir and Aaron Phangiso. And we would much rather play West Indies here than in Mumbai.”

Shane Watson hopes to bowl in the nets on Monday as he aims to prove his fitness for an all-round role in the final Investec Ashes Test at The Oval, which starts on Wednesday

Brydon Coverdale at Wantage Road17-Aug-2013Shane Watson hopes to bowl in the nets on Monday as he aims to prove his fitness for an all-round role in the final Investec Ashes Test at The Oval, which starts on Wednesday. Watson did not bowl during Australia’s two-day tour match against England Lions in Northampton, which finished in a rain and bad light-affected draw on Saturday, after he suffered an injury to his right groin halfway through his 19th over in the Test loss at Chester-le-Street.However, Watson was able to bat and run between the wickets unimpeded in the second innings of that Test and again during Australia’s disappointing effort in Northampton, where he top scored with 45 from 44 deliveries. After the match, Watson said working with the team doctor Peter Brukner had given him confidence that he would be able to continue with the heavy bowling workload that has led to him sending down 80.3 overs in the series so far.”The injury I got during the Test match is something that just occasionally pops up in my groin,” Watson said. “It’s something that does settle down pretty quickly, so hopefully I’ll be bowling and building it up to be able to make sure I can do a job in the Test match. I think the plan is at the moment to be able to bowl on Monday and make sure I’m confident to be able to do a job in the Test match.”The great thing here is the doctor we’ve got here is someone who has made a significant difference to my body. The techniques he’s using to be able to release the tension that builds up in muscles has made a huge difference throughout this whole series so far, with what he’s been doing with this groin injury that does flare up occasionally but does settle down quicker than my calf or hamstring issues.”If Watson was unable to bowl at The Oval it would place his position in the team in doubt, given his lack of big scores in Test cricket over the past two years and the selectors’ desire to have a fifth bowling option. Watson looked good in scoring his 45 against England Lions, mostly against the spin of Simon Kerrigan, but like the rest of the batsmen he failed to go on after making a start.The match was particularly important for Usman Khawaja, the incumbent Test No.3, and for Phillip Hughes, the man who could replace him at The Oval. Khawaja edged behind for 4 and Hughes made a scratchy 30, and while it was notable that Hughes came in at first drop and Khawaja down at No.6, Watson, the stand-in captain, said that was a decision that had come down from the team management.”I’m a ring-in captain so I have no idea, absolutely none,” he said of the batting order. “I’m told where we’re all to bat and we moved on. I know not to interpret things. It might get me into trouble.”That no player managed a half-century was far from the result the Australians wanted after their capitulation at Chester-le-Street. Nathan Lyon bowled impressively on the first day in Northampton and Mitchell Starc was reasonable enough, but Watson said apart from the fact that most batsmen had at least got starts, there was little to take out of the batting display.”The wicket with the new ball provided a few challenges,” he said. “It wasn’t a Test match wicket, that’s for sure, so it’s hard to get a gauge of exactly where guys are at. In the end I think it was just more a case of getting out there and trying to put in a decent performance. In the end we probably haven’t got a hell of a lot out of this game from the batting side of things.”From the bowling side of things I thought Nathan Lyon bowled extremely well, especially in the first part of his spell. Mitchell Starc bowled really well with the new ball so there are some very positive signs out of this as well.”

30-Aug-2012Worcestershire 323 and 44 for 3 (Roland-Jones 2-18) lead Middlesex 306 (Dexter 90, Robson 72, Richardson 4-62) by 61 runs
ScorecardNeil Dexter continued his recent good form but fell ten runs short of a century•Getty Images

Half-centuries by Neil Dexter and Sam Robson helped lift Middlesex to 306 in reply to Worcestershire’s 323 in the weather-hit Championship Division One match. Dexter led the way with 90 and figured in a century stand for the fourth wicket with Robson, who made 72.Relegation-battling Worcestershire were again being well served by paceman Alan Richardson, who took 4 for 62, and by the close the hosts led by 61, having lost first-innings century-maker Daryl Mitchell, Phil Hughes and Moeen Ali.Dexter, who scored 101 against Warwickshire at Edgbaston last week, and Robson produced key performances for Middlesex after Richardson had wasted little time in unsettling his former club when they resumed on 49 without loss off 13 overs.He launched a burst of three wickets in successive overs, costing just four runs, by having left hander Chris Rogers caught by young wicketkeeper Ben Cox for 22, leaving him 15 short of completing 1,000 Championship runs for the season.Joe Denly soon followed, bowled off stump, before Richardson picked up his 50th Championship scalp of the campaign by removing Dawid Malan. Richardson’s impressive treble left Middlesex on 61 for 3 and in need of a steadying influence which Robson provided after resuming on 27 not out.Accompanied by Dexter, he completed his half century off 108 balls with nine fours and by lunch they had steered Middlesex to 140 for 3 off 44 overs. Both batsmen continued to prosper after the break and completed a well earned century stand in 32 overs.Robson, dropped the previous evening on 21, finally fell after hitting 11 fours off 157 balls in his highest Championship score so far this season. He put on 106 in 34 overs with Dexter, whose 50 came off 106 deliveries with eight fours. Robson, whose father Jim played for Worcestershire’s second XI in 1979, perished when he dollied up a catch to Matt Pardoe at forward short leg off spinner Moeen.Adam Rossington was trapped lbw by paceman Gareth Andrew before Dexter and Gareth Berg pushed Middlesex past the 200 mark in the 63rd over. By tea, taken one ball early because of a brief shower, they had completed a half-century stand with Middlesex on 241 for 5.The first ball after the interval, however, ended the 60-run partnership when a loose drive outside the off stump by Berg led to him being caught at first slip by Moeen off Chris Russell. Dexter finally departed to an inside edge on to his middle stump against Joe Leach after hitting 12 fours off 190 balls.Worcestershire continued to pep their fortunes when Richardson ousted Toby Roland-Jones before Russell saw off Steven Crook and Tim Murtagh after the last two Middlesex wickets had yielded 41.

Australia’s batsmen have gorged themselves on video footage of Sri Lanka’s attack in the lead-up to the first Test in Galle in a bid to help them combat the hosts’ bowlers better

Daniel Brettig in Galle30-Aug-2011Australia’s batsmen have gorged themselves on video footage of Sri Lanka’s attack in the lead-up to the first Test in Galle. In doing so they have avoided the trap of watching wickets taken by Rangana Herath, Ajantha Mendis and Suraj Randiv, preferring to concentrate on freeze-framed vision of each bowler’s hand position.England prepared for the 1994-95 Ashes series by watching tapes of Shane Warne befuddling New Zealand and South Africa’s batsmen, leaving Mike Atherton’s team in a state of considerable anxiety when they finally encountered Warne himself – there were also the memories of the 1993 series to contend with.Bewitched by the mesmeric nature of the footage, the Englishmen were routed by Warne in the first two Tests. Michael Clarke, the Australia captain, said his team had not made the same mistake as they sought knowledge of bowlers only Ricky Ponting has encountered in a Test in Sri Lanka before.”We haven’t looked at too many wickets,” Clarke said. “We’ve been [mostly] stopping the footage and looking at what they do with their hands. Mendis, for instance, bowls a faster legspinner; he’s got an offspinner out the front of the hand, and then he’s got a wrong’un out the back of the hand.”So we just want to get more [on] what’s coming out of the hand … the result of the delivery is irrelevant, in my opinion; the more you have seen somebody, surely has to be some sort of an advantage when you know you’re going to face them.Not just the spin, their quicks have bowled pretty well in these conditions. We haven’t seen the tall left-armer [Chanaka Welegedara] who played in England and did pretty well, we haven’t played against him, so we’ve looked at him as well. We’re just trying to tick all boxes to give each individual batsman and bowler the best chance to have success.”There is statistical background to suggest Australia’s senior batsmen have a greater chance of success against spin than pace, and Clarke said he, Ponting, Shane Watson and Michael Hussey had been doing their best to advise the likes of Phillip Hughes and Usman Khawaja.”I feel I’m most comfortable against spin, but I think it has got me out more often than fast bowling in my career,” Clarke said. “So it’s a weird one; there are probably more scoring opportunities against spin, but there’s obviously more risk as well.”So I think our preparation, coming in [to the Tests], has been really good for our top six batsmen; five apart from Hughesy [Hughes] and Uzzy [Khawaja] have played in the one-dayers, so I think that [it] helps, seeing a lot of their spin bowlers in these conditions … you couldn’t ask for better preparation.”We’ve looked at a lot of footage as well, which has shown Uzzy and Hughesy the different variations, which I think is an important part of your preparation. It’s still not the same as getting out there facing them, but it gives you a good starting point, in that you can actually see the differences in their hands for their normal ball or their doosra.”We know spin is a huge part of this series, and we know we need to have success against it to win the series.”

Virat Kohli, the Indian batsman, has been fined 15% of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during his team’s ODI against New Zealand in Dambulla on Wednesday

Cricinfo staff26-Aug-2010Virat Kohli, the Indian batsman, has been fined 15% of his match fee for breaching the ICC Code of Conduct during his team’s ODI against New Zealand in Dambulla on Wednesday.Kohli pleaded guilty to a Level 1 offence and accepted the penalty imposed by match referee Alan Hurst after play concluded. He was found to have breached 2.1.3 of the code which relates to “showing dissent at an umpire’s decision”.After being given out in the sixth over, Kohli stood his ground and looked at the umpire for a considerable time before eventually leaving the middle. The New Zealand team had finished celebrating and their 12th man had brought the team drinks by the time Kohli had walked past the non-striker on his way to the pavilion.”Accepting umpires’ decisions is part and parcel of playing cricket,” Hurst said, “and on this occasion Virat clearly showed dissent when he had been given out.”Since Kohli pleaded guilty to dissent and accepted the proposed sanction there was no need for a formal hearing. The charge was brought by on-field umpires Asad Rauf and Asoka de Silva, third umpire Kumar Dharmasena and fourth official Gration Liyanage.

Duo put on 77 to take Spirit up to second in the table

ECB Media13-Aug-2024Heather Knight and Deepti Sharma guided London Spirit to a vital seven-wicket win at Headingley in the Hundred to keep their team in the hunt for the play-off stages and knock out their opponents, Northern Superchargers.The pair put on 77 to take Spirit up to second in the table, on nine points, and they will now keep an eye on events at Trent Bridge on Thursday with the Trent Rockets and Oval Invincibles fixture deciding the final make-up of the top three.For Superchargers, a win today would have guaranteed their place in the last three for the second successive season but their campaign is now over.The damage was done by Spirit’s bowlers up top. After just 14 balls, Superchargers were three down – Tara Norris, Eva Gray and Dani Gibson each claiming a wicket to see the back of Superchargers’ top three – including the dangerous Phoebe Litchfield.Litchfield’s fellow Aussie, Annabel Sutherland – so often a stand-out player for Hollie Armitage’s side – attempted a rebuild for her side but when she picked out long-on off Deepti, hopes of a formidable total for the hosts fell away. Alice Davidson-Richards’ 33 ensured they had something on the board, but their 99 felt 7 felt below par.Superchargers were going to need early wickets and scoreboard pressure to make a game of it but Meg Lanning dispatched a couple of sixes in an 11-ball 20 to get Spirit ahead of the chase.Linsey Smith came on to dismiss Lanning, and briefly lifted Superchargers hopes with two more wickets, but that brought Knight and Deepti together and they weren’t to be separated.Initially patient, they accelerated towards the end and were relatively untroubled in what could have been a pressure chase – the experienced international duo showing their class to keep Spirit hopes alive and spell the end for Superchargers.Meerkat Match Hero Deepti said: “I think all credit goes to our bowlers. We had a meeting and we executed really well.”I think personally I’m used to these kind of conditions. The wicket is slightly on the slower side, sometimes skiddy, but we managed it really well in the first innings and the second as well.”I like challenges and really like to bowl and bat in those kind of situations. We only focus on our games and yeah we will sit there and [watch] the other games.”