Category Uncategorized

Scorecard

Steve Tikolo led from the front with five wickets and a half-century as he guided Kenya to a narrow nine-run win over The Netherlands in Jamaica. The captain Tikolo helped his side recover from early trouble with 51 on the way to a healthy total of 274 for 8 and he stepped in with 5 for 48 when his opponents threatened to steal the game.Each of The Netherlands’ top three reached half-centuries to give them a strong chance of victory, but Tikolo made sure they fell short at 265 for 9. The Netherlands started well when Darron Reekers and Bas Zuiderent put on 142 for the first wicket at almost five an over. Reekers collected 75 and Zuiderent posted 65 to lay the platform, which Ryan ten Doeschate built on with 50 off 46 balls.However, when ten Doeschate was run-out in the 48th over the innings went into freefall and in the scramble for another 19 runs they lost four wickets. After removing Reekers, Tikolo’s offspin took care of Daan van Bunge (23) and Peter Borren (22) before finishing his haul by knocking over Billy Stelling and Luuk van Troost.Sent in to bat, Kenya slumped to 21 for 3 when David Obuya was caught-and-bowled to become Mark Jonkman’s second wicket. However, Tikolo and Tony Suji (47) were able to move them to safety in an important 104-run partnership.When Tikolo and Suji fell within nine runs and Tanmay Mishra departed at 141 for 6 – van Bunge picked up three wickets in three overs – it seemed as though The Netherlands would have a comfortable chase. Their plans were shattered when Thomas Odoyo, the No. 7, thumped an innings-high 73, which was finally ended by van Troost, whose eventful final over cost 24. Odoyo, who faced only 49 balls and hit four sixes, contributed in valuable stands of 62 with Collins Obuya and 71 with Jimmy Kamande.

New South Wales will rely on a couple of new faces when they play South Australia in the ING Cup final at Adelaide on Sunday. With Australia stealing Michael Clarke, who made 75 against Western Australia at the weekend, the Blues have added Moises Henriques, Grant Roden and Corey Richards in the 13-man squad.Henriques, an allrounder, is in line to play his second domestic one-day game after returning from leading the Australia Under-19 side to the semi-finals of the World Cup in Sri Lanka last week. Australia were knocked out by Pakistan and Henriques finished with 150 runs at 37.5 and 16 wickets – the most in the tournament – at 10.62.Roden will step into the squad following the Cricket Australia Cup match against Victoria at Glen Waverley in the hope of appearing in his second match while Richards is eyeing his 54th game. Matthew Nicholson, who has captained the state during the season, misses out. South Australia made one change to the side that beat Queensland on Friday with Daniel Cullen returning from a finger injury in the place of Ryan Harris.New South Wales squad Phil Jaques, Craig Simmons, Matthew Phelps, Corey Richards, Dominic Thornely, Aaron O’Brien, Brad Haddin (capt, wk), Moises Henriques, Jason Krejza, Grant Roden, Aaron Bird, Doug Bollinger, Stuart MacGill.South Australia squad Greg Blewett, Cameron Borgas, Mark Cosgrove, Darren Lehmann (capt), Callum Ferguson, Daniel Harris, Ken Skewes, Graham Manou (wk), Mark Cleary, Jason Gillespie, Daniel Cullen, Cullen Bailey, Shaun Tait.

Any team that goes into the final Test of a three-Test series 1-0 up must feel that half its job is done. Would Sourav Ganguly go for a draw on a batting-friendly surface at the Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore to secure the series win?Ganguly said he would not.”We will play this Test like we played the last two,” he said. “We will play to win.”Inzamam-ul-Haq, Pakistan’s captain, who will be playing his 100th Testtomorrow, agreed that the pitch would help India play for a draw. “Butwe have no choice,” he said. “We have to go for a win. It doesn’tmatter if we lose, but we must win.”The conditions and the pitchThe weather at Bangalore was unusually warm, and bowling in theafternoon sun would be sapping. Both teams had fifth-bowling optionsin Shahid Afridi and Sachin Tendulkar, and these men would no doubtplay a key part in giving the frontline bowlers a break. There mightnot be much work for the faster bowlers here: the pitch was stripped bare, and Bob Woolmer, Pakistan’s coach, described it as “a batting paradise”. The pitch was expected to help the spinners later in the game, though. Winning the toss, thus, was important, as whoever batted first would have a great opportunity to pile up a big score in ideal conditions, and then bowl fourth.The teams

Pakistan“We’re going to play with aggression,” Inzamam-ul-Haq said the day before the Test at Kolkata began. “We’re going to try and play a positive game.” He said that the Kolkata match was Pakistan’s for the saving. “On the pitch we could have batted through the whole day. It was a failure on the part of the batsmen that we didn’t.”Inzamam indicated that two changes were likely in the Pakistan side. He did not say what those were, but birdies indicated that Yasir Hameed would replace Taufeeq Umar, and Arshad Khan would replace Mohammad Khalil.IndiaWinning this Test would be a “big achievement for the team”, said Sourav Ganguly, not just because it would give India a 2-0 series win, but also because they would jump to No. 2 in the ICC’s Test rankings. “The 14-15 guys who have worked for this over the last three, four, five years will be satisfied,” he said. “It will be great for Indian cricket.”No changes were expected in the Indian team, but Ganguly’s form withthe bat was a worry. “I understand that I need to get runs,” he said. “I’ll try and get a big score here.”

England 294 and 285 for 7 (Vaughan 105, Muralitharan 4-64) drew with Sri Lanka 382 and 279 for 7 dec
Scorecard

For the second time in eight days, England showed their mettle to eke out a tense and closely fought draw in the second Test at Kandy. Michael Vaughan led the way to safety with a gritty seven-hour 105, before Chris Read and Gareth Batty batted out the final hour to leave England seven wickets down – and still all-square in the series.Sri Lanka, though, will be wondering how they again managed to let England off the hook. They only took five wickets in the day, and will be left to reflect on the decision to take the bad light on the third evening. One man who must take some of the blame is Hashan Tillakaratne, the captain. Just like at Galle, he paid the price for being over-cautious in his field placements, his delay in declaring yesterday – and for his side’s lack of urgency today.Admittedly, though, it would have been a different story if it hadn’t been for a magnificent effort from Vaughan. He gutsed it out until 40 minutes after tea and faced a monumental 333 balls in all, as he led England’s stubborn resistance. Against a surprisingly defensive field set by Tillakaratne, Vaughan rolled up his sleeves and displayed immaculate determination and concentration.A model of coolness, he was solid in defence, but also kept up the tempo with the ones and twos, as well as the odd boundary. He added an invaluable 77 with Graham Thorpe, who made a brave 41, and put on a gutsy stand of 41 with the battling Paul Collingwood.While he was at the crease, England were in safe hands, but after Vaughan had chalked up his tenth Test hundred, Muttiah Muralitharan – as he so often does – made the big breakthrough for his side and set English hearts jumping. He fizzed down a doosra towards leg stump and Vaughan got an inside edge which was sharply taken by Tillakaratne Dilshan, diving to his right at short leg (239 for 7). It wasn’t one of Vaughan’s most elegant of centuries – but one of his most important.The only slight blemish in Vaughan’s innings were the delaying tactics he used by frequently walking down the pitch to chat with his partner. The Sri Lankans – and the umpires – didn’t like it and the bowlers became more and more frustrated as Vaughan refused to budge.After Vaughan was snaffled out with 15 overs still remaining, Sri Lanka were eyeing a dramatic victory. Tillakaratne took the new ball and Chaminda Vaas and Muralitharan – Sri Lanka’s big two – were charging in with their tails up. However, Batty and Read – England’s most inexperienced two – showed professionalism beyond their years as they used all the old tricks to waste time between each delivery. Even Matthew Hoggard, the 12th man, needlessly came out with gloves and water, but was roundly booed by the crowd, and promptly sent back by the umpires – much to his amusement.

In the nervy finale, Batty, who’s becoming an old pro in these situations, played with his usual steely and watchful eyes. He and Read knuckled down and, in the end, calmly shepherded England to a tense draw in closing scenes similar to Galle. It was a fitting reward for a side who never gave up throughout the match.As the day wore on, the appeals became more frantic, more words were exchanged, and the usually smiley Tillakaratne was beginning to look a tad concerned. And things boiled over in the afternoon when Tillakaratne charged towards umpire Aleem Dar during yet another appeal. Daryl Harper had to step in to reprimand Tillakaratne and Kumar Sangakkara for their excessive appealing, and for using foul language, which was picked up by the match referee on the stump microphone.It all represented how much England’s resistance was getting under their skin, especially after Vaas had given them a dream start – and thoughts of an early finish. With his fourth ball of the day, Vaas removed Nasser Hussain, caught behind by Sangakkara. And things could have got even worse for England in Vaas’s next over, when Vaughan edged fractionally short of Mahela Jayawardene at first slip. It was a fraught beginning for England and Sri Lanka were cock-a-hoop, but Thorpe entered the fray to push quick singles to good effect, and he slowly steady things down and put England back on track to safety.He nudged and nurdled in his own trademark style and provided good support for Vaughan. The pair batted through the majority of the morning session and kept the score ticking along. However, Thorpe was unluckily given out by Dar straight after the lunch break. He pressed forward to a Murali offbreak, and the ball flicked the pad on the way to Sangakkara. However, the umpire thought it found the edge and as the fielders appealed, he sent a dejected Thorpe on his way (167 for 4).Collingwood slotted into the groove straight away with little fuss. He mixed defence with the odd boundary before he was caught by Jayawardene at first slip off Kumar Dharmasena. Instead of playing straight, Collingwood tried to turn a straight ball through midwicket, but only got a thick edge (208 for 5).A nervy Flintoff then battled away for 35 balls until Murali trapped him plumb in front of middle with a quicker ball. Flintoff should have been forward to the big-turning offbreak, but chose to stay back and paid the price (233 for 6). Vaughan soon followed and that set up another tense finish which Read and Batty successfully saw out – and left Sri Lanka again cursing their failure to finish off England.

Cameras won’t only be monitoring close decisions and players’ behaviour on the field in the series between the West Indies and Pakistan in the neutral venue of Sharjah, starting with the first of two Tests on Thursday.In a scenario straight out of the CIA, the KGB and MI5 files at the height of the cold war, they are to be placed outside the doors of team dressing rooms and in the hotel foyers by the International Cricket Council (ICC) Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU).The object is to deter players from any dealings with bookmakers eager to repeat the match-fixing deals that have thrown a dark shadow over the game and brought about the banning of two former Test captains, Hansie Cronje of South Africa and Mohammed Azharuddin of India.The closed-circuit cameras will be monitored by one of the officers of the ACU. It was formed by the ICC in 1999 at a cost of over US$4 million under the direction of former London police chief Paul Condon, after Cronje’s involvement with a Bombay bookmaker was exposed by India’s Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).The ICC has said the measures will be applied to all matches under its jurisdiction in future in its drive to root out corruption.A report presented by Condon to the ICC last year identified Sharjah, one of the seven United Arab Emirates in the Arabian gulf state, as one of the main locations for illegal gambling and match-fixing.The Indian government has banned its team from competing in tournaments in Sharjah until it is cleared of the allegations.In response, the Emirates Cricket Board mounted its own inquiry into corruption last year. It was headed by British Queen’s Counsel George Staple but its findings are still to be published.The former Pakistan and Kent captain, Asif Iqbal, organised the several international tournaments staged in Sharjah for the Cricketers’ Professional Benefit Fund (CPBF) that paid sizeable endowments to outstanding former Test players, many West Indian, but mainly Pakistani and Indian. But he moved into another overseas cricketing position in recent months.Abdul-Mohammed Bukhatir has recently set up Taj Television, a new channel based in the Emirates, devoted to cricket and mainly aimed at the cricket-mad markets in India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.He has also constructed another cricket stadium in Rabat, Morocco, that was mooted as a possible venue for the West Indies-Pakistan series but is now expected to become operational in April.Former Test captains, Clive Lloyd of the West Indies, Sunil Gavaskar of India and Ian Botham of England, have been engaged by Bukhatir.In another controversial decision, the ICC has appointed former England captain Mike Denness as match referee for the upcoming series.Denness was at the centre of the furore late last year when the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) refused to accept him as referee for the final Test of the series in South Africa after he disciplined six Indian players for breaches of the ICC code of conduct in the second Test.The ICC declared the third and final Test unofficial after the South African board, on India’s insistence, replaced Denness with former South African wicket-keeper Dennis Lindsay as referee.Pakistan and the West Indies have both accepted Denness’ appointment. But the ICC has subsequently set up a committee to look into the terms of reference for its referees.

Geeta Samantharay scored a fine 88 to help Bihar score 246against last year’s runners-up Air India at the end of the firstday in the semifinal of the CricInfo Trophy Senior Women’sNational Cricket Championship at the Jorhat Stadium in Jorhaton Wednesday.Electing to bat, Bihar got off to a sedate start with openersNeetu Singh (37 runs of 70 balls) and Kamini Kumari (10) puttingon 30 runs off 13.1 overs. Then Geeta, who got her runs off 99balls with 17 fours and one six and Neetu Singh increased thescore by 59 runs during a second wicket association that lasted13.4 overs. This was followed by a fourth wicket stand of 48runs off 12.1 overs between Geeta and Seema Desai (49 runs off91 balls with five fours).Even after Geeta’s dismissal, the innings was kept going by afifth wicket partnership of 33 runs in 12.1 overs between PiyaliMoitra (6) and Seema Desai and an eighth wicket stand of 36 runsoff 20 overs between Gargi De (3 runs off 87 balls) and Babusha(31 runs off 75 balls). Usha Bogada (3 for 60) and Poornima Rau(3 for 64) were the pick of the Air India bowlers.