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John Glover led some late Glamorgan batting aggression to put his side in a dominant position at the end of the third day of their Championship match with Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl

04-Aug-2013
ScorecardJohn Glover did damage with the bat for Glamorgan•PA PhotosJohn Glover led some late Glamorgan batting aggression to put his side in a dominant position at the end of the third day of their Championship match with Hampshire at the Ageas Bowl.Glover, who had hit only one previous half-century in his career, struck eight fours in an unbeaten 51 before his captain Mark Wallace declared with Glamorgan 129 ahead at 478 for nine in their first innings. In the 41 overs which remained Hampshire lost openers Jimmy Adams and Michael Carberry in making 115 for 2, still 14 behind and with a day left.Both sides are in desperate need of a win, Glamorgan having won only once in ten Division Two fixtures and Hampshire twice. Glamorgan went into the third day at 226 for 4, still trailing Hampshire by 123, but they soon made up the deficit on their way to a healthy lead of their own on a pitch still offering little support to the bowlers.Chris Cooke, 73 not out, and Jim Allenby made their fifth-wicket stand worth 127 before Allenby edged Sohail Tanvir to Liam Dawson at slip when the score was 297. Cooke, eight runs short of his maiden first-class century, was dismissed in the next over, also caught at slip by Sean Ervine off Chris Wood just as a big opportunity beckoned.Cooke, whose previous best had been a modest 44, hit 16 fours, which hinted at his promise, and faced 153 balls but his exit only hastened some lower-order hitting by Graham Wagg, who made 33, Wallace, Dean Cosker and above all by Glover.Hampshire ran out of ideas in the heat of the Southampton afternoon as Wallace and Cosker each reaped 39 while the belligerent Glover took the attack to the tiring Hampshire bowling. In the end opening batsman Will Bragg, who made 5, was the only Glamorgan batsman not to reach double figures and the declaration came with No. 9 batsman Glover reaching his landmark.Glamorgan’s lead began to look formidable as Adams departed at 20, deceived by Cosker’s turn, and then Carberry departed at 102 after a second-wicket partnership of 82 with Liam Dawson.Carberry at least had the satisfaction of reaching 10,000 career runs in first-class matches while making 62 but his departure to Wagg’s medium pace lifted Glamorgan beliefs that their second win could be on the way at last.

Angelo Mathews embarks on the Champions Trophy as a largely untested commodity. Can he use this platform to successfully secure his position at the helm and lead Sri Lanka to success?

Andrew Fidel Fernando27-May-2013Both on and off the field, Angelo Mathews gives few emotions away. There was a time when he was among the team’s most exuberant men, but experience, and the onset of responsibility, have seemingly dulled his zest for public elation. He is now equally stoic with a dozen microphones set before him.As Sri Lanka departed for the Champions Trophy in England, Mathews had little to say, aside from trotting out worn-out assurances that the side would seek to capitalise on its strengths, and had set its sights on the semi-finals as their first target. Four months into his tenure, Mathews is already proficient in the art mastered by all jaded captains – that of talking without saying much at all. Only, Sri Lanka’s problems in the approach to the tournament did not need vocalising. The IPL has laid them bare.Nine of Sri Lanka’s probable first XI travelled to India for the tournament, and only Thisara Perera and Sachithra Senanayake have returned with any semblance of form behind them. Of the three Sri Lankan captains, Kumar Sangakkara dropped himself from the side, mid-season, citing a poor run, while Mathews himself surrendered the captaincy when his own place in an ailing team became threatened. Mahela Jayawardene remained at the helm of Delhi Daredevils throughout the tournament, but the team finished dead last, with him having done barely anything with the bat to prevent it.Among the others, Tillakaratne Dilshan failed to fire in five outings, while Jeevan Mendis and Kusal Perera largely warmed the dugout benches during the last two months. Lasith Malinga meanwhile, who had been among the IPL’s safest bets in previous seasons, was as bipolar for his franchise as he has been for Sri Lanka in the last 18 months.Over the past week, the team has arrived piecemeal from across the Palk Strait and headed immediately into Champions Trophy training sessions, to join the six non-IPL cricketers who have been at it for almost a month.”I’m not really worried about our form,” Mathews said. “The IPL is completely different to what we will play now. We are professionals, and we know how to prepare for a tournament like this. The boys are pretty confident of themselves. The guys who were in India and Sri Lanka have all trained well, and there was a training tournament here. When we prepare for the Champions Trophy, we put in a lot of effort, and as a team we are ready for this.”Despite his optimism, Mathews will know the team has further to go than if they had all embarked on their flight to England with runs and wickets to commend them. However, there is also truth in his assertion that the Champions Trophy is a different beast. Alongside Pakistan, Sri Lanka have been the most consistent side at major tournaments in the last six years, making it to four finals in their last six ICC events. Their results leading in to each tournament have not always suggested they would progress to the final.On each of those occasions, the team has ignited at the beginning of the tournament, finding, as a collective, gears that elude them in many bilateral affairs. By the time the group stage is complete, they have been marked as favourites, and have ridden that momentum to the final, where vexing decisions and uncharacteristic nerves have hastened their ultimate demise.Chief among the reasons for their sudden surge has, in the past, been leadership. Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara matured as cricketers before they were handed the reins, and have proven shrewd as captains in major tournaments.Mathews may possess a steel temperament, but he has not yet shown himself as a canny leader, and his batting form is a law unto itself – failing abruptly just when formidable scores are beginning to cluster together. His bowling has been more consistent, and it is this that has helped make him a vital part of the Sri Lanka side since his arrival. He is yet, however, to truly establish himself on the international stage in the way that almost every Sri Lankan captain has before him.The Champions Trophy is his biggest assignment yet, as captain, and his challenge has been magnified by the state of his own game, as well as those of the side’s senior batsmen. If Mathews can stir up the familiar courage Sri Lanka teams have embraced in recent tournaments, he will emerge a secure leader, and repay the faith he has been afforded. If he cannot, he will remain a young captain on trial, with plenty still to prove.

A spirited performance on the field, followed by a resilient 95-run stand between David Warner and Unmukt Chand helped Daredevils add a third win to come level with Knight Riders

The Report by Devashish Fuloria01-May-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDavid Warner played a measured 66 to marshall the chase•BCCIA spirited performance on the field, followed by a resilient 95-run stand between David Warner and Unmukt Chand helped Delhi Daredevils add a third win to come level with Kolkata Knight Riders. Knight Riders are now level with Daredevils, squandering a two-point advantage. The task of making it to the playoffs, for both, remains a distant dream.Daredevils had been the happier side halfway into their innings. The first couple of overs from Brett Lee and L Balaji indicated there was help for the bowlers, but Virender Sehwag laced a couple of boundaries to set the innings into motion. Gautam Gambhir spilled an easy chance off Sehwag at short cover, but it didn’t hurt Knight Riders much. Sehwag steered a length delivery into the hands of slip in the next over, the relief writ large on Gambhir’s face. And when Mahela Jayawardene fell in an identical manner the next over, Knight Riders had found an opening.Unmukt Chand had a torrid time in his first four games, but he set about improving his run with a patient stay in the middle. He was at sea against Sunil Narine’s variations, but hung in and kept rotating the strike. Fortunately for Daredevils, there wasn’t much scoreboard pressure; only a couple of productive overs were needed to catch up with the required rate.That impetus was provided by measured aggression from David Warner, who pierced the boundary every now and then and helped bring the equation under control during the 12th over that yielded 15 runs. By that time, Chand had settled down and started stroking boundaries – an upper-cut past slip being the most stylish – to bring up his best score this IPL. He fell trying to hasten the end but Warner, who scored his third half-century this IPL, switched gears, unleashed the ruthless strokeplay he’s acquired a reputation for and sealed victory with 13 balls to spare.Gambhir called the Raipur stadium one of the best in the country in terms of facilities, but the venue didn’t bring any cheer for Knight Riders after they chose to bat. Manvinder Bisla, who was in imperious touch in the last two matches, started with a casual pull that rocketed to the deep square-leg boundary, but, off the very next ball, Gambhir called him for a suicidal single and paid the price as Irfan, the bowler, beat him in a dash to the striker’s end.What followed was a period in which the Daredevils seamers – and the fielders – started shutting escape routes for the batsmen. Bisla was beaten for pace by a sharp delivery from Umesh Yadav. Yusuf Pathan attempted to mark his authority with a huge hit off Morne Morkel, but was brilliantly caught next ball by Irfan, who took the skier running backwards from square leg.That brought the experienced pair of Jacques Kallis and Eoin Morgan together, but their alliance was short-lived. Morgan reverse-swept Shahbaz Nadeem for a boundary, but when he tried to pull the long-hop next ball, Yadav charged in from deep square leg to take a good, low diving catch. Kallis followed Morgan in the next over, as another stunning, one-handed catch at point, from Ben Rohrer, reduced Knight Riders to 50 for 4 in the ninth over.Debabrata Das and Rajat Bhatia started the repair job, making slow progress with occasional hits to the boundary to bring Knight Riders to 83 for 5 with five overs to go. They hobbled to 110 for 6 at the end of the 18th, but some timely hitting by Lee propped up the score to 136, a good effort on a ground with bigger boundaries. It wasn’t good enough, however.

Mervyn Westfield has been issued with a summons from the High Court in London compelling him to appear at Danish Kaneria’s ECB disciplinary appeal

George Dobell11-Apr-2013Mervyn Westfield has been issued with a summons from the High Court in London compelling him to appear at Danish Kaneria’s ECB disciplinary appeal.The development is an unusual one and there is some doubt as to whether the High Court has any jurisdiction in the affairs of a sporting body’s disciplinary procedure. The appeal is currently scheduled for April 22, with Kaneria expected to travel from Pakistan to England on April 17 to mount his defence against a life suspension from cricket.Kaneria, the Pakistan legspinner, was banned and charged £100,000 in costs by an ECB panel in June 2012 for his part in the spot-fixing case involving former Essex bowler Westfield. Kaneria had been found guilty of inducing his former Essex team-mate to underperform in a limited-overs game in 2009 and of bringing the game into disrepute. Westfield, who was jailed for his role in the case, gave evidence against Kaneria at the hearing.As all boards under the governance of the ICC have an agreement to mirror bans imposed in such circumstances, Kaneria’s ban has been effective worldwide.Kaneria’s appeal hearing was originally scheduled for December but, after the ECB was unable to gain Westfield’s cooperation, it was postponed until April. Without Westfield’s evidence, the ECB’s case against Kaneria is severely compromised. Kaneria’s lawyers are looking not just for his ban to be overturned – at 32, he harbours hopes of a reviving his international career – but they are also claiming “very substantial damages” from the ECB.Westfield remains reluctant to appear at the appeal. He feels that the harshness of his penalty – a four-month prison sentence and a five-year ban from the first-class game (he is allowed to return to club cricket after three years) – did not reflect the fact that he pleaded guilty and gave evidence and helped the authorities with their investigations.ESPNcricinfo understands that Westfield’s lawyers are currently considering their reaction to the summons. Both the ECB and Kaneria insist they want Westfield to appear at the appeal hearing, although it seems the ECB is the party with most to lose from his absence. Kaneria’s lawyers remain adamant that, without Westfield’s evidence, the ECB “has no case”.

David Warner believes if Michael Clarke moves up from No. 5, it will add much-needed stability to Australia’s top order but, he said, it would be disappointing as it meant the rest of the batsmen had not been performing

Brydon Coverdale11-Mar-2013David Warner believes if Michael Clarke moves up from No. 5, it will add much-needed stability to Australia’s top order but he said it would be disappointing if such a change was required because it meant the rest of the batsmen had not been performing adequately. Clarke’s batting position for the Mohali Test has not yet been confirmed but after the loss in Hyderabad, where he was out for 91 in the first innings trying to score quickly with the tail, he indicated he would need to promote himself.Clarke, who has scored more than twice as many runs as any other members of the top six on this tour, could bat at either first drop or second drop given how early India have been using their spinners. So far in the series, Clarke has come in at 126 for 3, 65 for 3, 57 for 3 and 75 for 3, and although the conditions have played a part in those low scores, three-down for very few has become an all-too-familiar sight on Australia’s scorecard in recent years.”I just think it will stabilise us a lot, instead of losing three wickets we might only lose one wicket and rotate the strike more,” Warner said. “I don’t think it is necessarily about having Michael at three; it is about us, the top four, to knuckling down and scoring runs, that’s the main issue. If we can do our job right there is no reason to reshuffle the order.”Warner started the series with a scratchy half-century in the first innings in Chennai and since then has had little impact, despite making a couple of starts and reaching the 20s. In the second innings in Hyderabad he was bowled around his legs trying to sweep the first ball he faced from R Ashwin over the wicket and it was a shot that frustrated the coach Mickey Arthur, who had that morning instilled in the team the need to avoid cross-bat shots.Warner could have spent some time adjusting to Ashwin’s new line and perhaps even kicked the ball away given that it was pitching outside leg stump and he could not be lbw. Another option would have been to flick the ball through midwicket but that would have carried the risk of a leading edge. Warner said in hindsight his best play would have been to come down the pitch and reach the ball on the full.”If you’re pushing a ball through midwicket against the turn you could get a leading edge and get caught at slip,” Warner said. “I think that ball, when I look back at it, if I took the stride down the wicket, I could have got to it on the full. If I had a second line of defence I wouldn’t have got bowled. They’re the things that you look at and the decisions that you make at the time.”I saw the ball drift late. What happens if you [try to pad it away and] miss it? It drifted at the last minute. If you go to pad those away you’re still leaving a gap between your legs, unless you’re guarding the stumps like a castle.”Australia enter the Mohali Test, which starts on Thursday, needing a victory to keep the series and their chances of retaining the Border-Gavaskar Trophy alive after going down 2-0 in Chennai and Hyderabad. The innings loss inside three and a half days in the second Test led the former Indian captain Dilip Vengsarkar to ponder in a newspaper column whether this was the worst Australian team ever to tour India, but Warner said it was important to remember that historically teams have struggled in the conditions.”We’ve won one tour [in the last 40 years],” Warner said. “Four out of the 16 blokes who are here have played Test-match cricket here [before]. We’re doing pretty well to put up a fight at least. We’ve had the best of conditions in both the first innings, that’s no excuse. But in the second innings with the ball turning, it has been tough for us because we aren’t used to the conditions.”In the first innings there’s no excuse, we’re supposed to be scoring well into high-300s, early-400s. We’ve got the capabilities of doing that. Hopefully in the next two Test matches we can not only prove everyone wrong but prove to ourselves that we’re good enough. We’ve got the right team and the right balance to do that.”

A collective bowling performance, and dominant batting by Shikhar Dhawan gave India A a smooth eight-wicket win over Bengal in Rajkot

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Sep-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details A collective bowling performance, and dominant batting by Shikhar Dhawan gave India A a smooth eight-wicket win over Bengal at Rajkot’s new Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium. A target of 194 proved to be too meagre for India A’s strong batting line-up. Eventually, only four batsmen were required to achieve the target, with more than 12 overs to spare, led by Dhawan’s innings. Dhawan batted right through the innings, and finished the game with a boundary through extra-cover, a shot that took him to 99.Opener Robin Uthappa was his more dominant partner at the top, but when he departed in the seventh over, Dhawan and the in-form Ajinkya Rahane added 150 runs to control the chase, making the contest one sided. Rahane’s 63, which contained five boundaries, was his fourth fifty in seven domestic games across all formats. The stand was broken by offspinner Jayojit Basu, but by then it was too late for Bengal as India A only needed ten more runs to win.Bengal’s innings was anything but dominant, and stuttered all the way through, led by effective bowling spells by the seamer Ishant Sharma and spinner Pragyan Ojha. The duo accounted for seven of Bengal’s wickets as apart from a recovery stand of 84 between wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha and No. 8 Arnab Nandi, there was nothing much the batsmen could offer. Saha, who last played international cricket in January, started his innings sedately and defended solidly in the first half of his innings, but as wickets kept falling around him, attacked assuredly towards the end. His 65 only rescued Bengal from further trouble when they were reduced to 92 for 6 at one stage.Ojha started the rot, claiming two of the first three wickets to fall, the other being a run out. He bowled with precision, allowing his deliveries to grip the surface well, and reaped rewards, claiming 3 for 40 in 9.1 overs. But the major damage was done by Ishant, who took four wickets, and was economical at 3.22 runs per over in his nine overs. It was his second domestic match since his return from an ankle surgery that had ruled him out of the IPL, his last international appearance for India being the Adelaide Test against Australia in January this year.India A take on India B in the next match of the Challenger Trophy on Sunday.

It is only 12 months ago that Lancashire won the final two matches of the season to complete an unlikely title triumph.

Myles Hodgson at Aigburth31-Aug-2012
ScorecardIt is only 12 months ago that Lancashire won the final two matches of the season to complete an unlikely title triumph. They face the same scenario again, only this time with a different prize, if they are to avoid relegation after Durham safeguarded their Division One status by batting out a draw on another rain-hit day at Aigburth.Having already lost 132 overs to the weather, Lancashire’s slim hope of forcing a positive result rested in dismissing Durham quickly and trying to exert pressure on the final afternoon. Despite taking early wickets, they were thwarted in that objective with Paul Collingwood scoring his first century in over a year to save the match when rain halted play with 32 overs remaining.Collingwood’s century, compiled over three hours at the crease, summed up Lancashire’s frustration in attempting to claim useful points towards their relegation struggle. Two early wickets gave them a small window of opportunity, but Collingwood was dropped on 45 and 75 and allowed to forge a 148-run seventh wicket stand with Scott Borthwick that killed the game for Lancashire and all but secured Durham’s safety for another season.”I think we’re 99% certain that we’re safe and that was our intention coming into the game,” Collingwood said. “We obviously wanted to win, but when we lost so much play to the rain, our intention coming into the final day was to get the draw. Hopefully we can stay up now and improve next year.”Simon Kerrigan, Lancashire’s left-arm spinner, provided hope by dismissing Michael Richardson and Phil Mustard to catches close to the wicket inside the first seven overs of the day, giving Lancashire 42 overs to claim three more wickets and secure maximum bowling points.Having already guided them to four successive wins since taking over the captaincy, Collingwood now stepped forward to play a relegation-saving innings. Playing carefully after the loss of the two early wickets, he gained confidence in a flat wicket and hit nine fours by the time he reached his hundred, his first since scoring 108 against Yorkshire at Chester-le-Street last summer and his first in 34 championship innings.Typically, he dismissed the link between the return to form and taking on the captaincy, but clearly enjoyed his contribution towards securing safety. “I think the wickets have improved and I think it’s more to do with that than me taking on the captaincy,” Collingwood said. “Once you get into a rhythm of batting and remember how to score runs again rather than edging them all over the place when it’s swinging and seaming all over the place, it’s good to get back into it again.”Borthwick drilled Gary Keedy to mid-on for an eye-catching 60, while Steven Croft’s offspin accounted for the final three wickets, including Collingwood for 114, but by then the game was safe. Rain prevented the final session from starting and now Lancashire will probably need victories in their final two Championship matches, at Lord’s against Middlesex and back at Aigburth for the relegation-decider against Surrey in the final round of games, to also remain in Division One.Before then they also have a potential Lord’s final to play for when they take on Warwickshire in tomorrow’s CB40 semi-final at Old Trafford.”There is as much at stake as last year,” admitted Peter Moores, Lancashire’s coach. “Playing to win and playing to stay up are different things because if you’re playing to win something there is natural confidence because you’ve been winning games going into it. There’s a different form of mental toughness needed for both, but we know that if we finish the next two to three weeks well, we could be in a Lord’s final and we could end up staying up. That’s a fantastic carrot to play for.”

England’s offspinner Graeme Swann has voiced sympathy for Kevin Pietersen’s decision to retire from one-day internationals to escape a relentless international schedule.

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Jun-2012England’s offspinner Graeme Swann has voiced sympathy for Kevin Pietersen’s decision to retire from one-day internationals to escape a relentless international schedule.”There comes a time when you get towards the end of your career, into your thirties, when something’s got to give,” Swann has told . “You can flog yourself to death and fall to pieces or you can start to be quite wise and make a pragmatic decision.”Whatever Kevin’s made his decision for, whether it be financial matters or the family or whatever, I can understand where he’s coming from because there’s certainly times I look at a schedule and just think: ‘How can I do this? My body’s killing me. I haven’t seen my kids, my wife is ready to get up and walk out because I’m never here.’ We’re human beings at the end of the day.”I’ve got a kid being born at the end of the summer and I’m going to see her for a week in the first six months of her life. I look at that and think how am I going to do it? How can I possibly get through?”If it was a couple of years down the line there’d be no two ways about it, I’d be saying, right, something’s got to give and something has to go.”Swann insisted that Pietersen, like all players, had an absolute right to make his own decision about when to retire, in whole or part, from the England side.”I can understand where Kev’s coming from and I can understand where the ECB are coming from at the same time: ‘We pay you well, we expect you play, it is a short career.’ But people have to face facts that you are in control of your own destiny, so you decide: ‘I’ve had enough, I’m going to retire from whatever form of the game,’ then that’s it.”Swann has repeatedly expressed disenchantment with the amount of 50-over cricket played by England, openly stating a preference for Tests and Twenty20, but he said he did not expect to follow a similar course.”It’s hard to say, but I think it would be all or nothing for me, to be honest,” he said. “If you pick and choose which one to ease off then I think for me it’d cause a lessening of my affections in the other forms.”

West Indies Women sealed the five-match Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka Women 3-1 after rain washed out the fifth and final T20 in Trinidad with just 18.2 overs of play possible

ESPNcricinfo staff10-May-2012
ScorecardWest Indies Women sealed the five-match Twenty20 series against Sri Lanka Women 3-1 after rain washed out the fifth and final T20 in Trinidad with just 18.2 overs of play possible.West Indies won the toss and chose to bat, but started poorly, losing opener Juliana Nero with just 14 runs on the board. Stafanie Taylor and Deandra Dottin steadied the innings with a 30-run partnership before Taylor was dismissed. West Indies lost a further two wickets and looked in trouble at 53 for 4. Dottin, however, held firm, hitting four fours and a six to reach her half-century and carry West Indies to 92 for 5, before rain intervened.

Chris Woakes, the Warwickshire allrounder, will miss the first six to eight weeks of the season after damaging his ankle ligaments on Warwickshire’s pre-season tour to Barbados.

George Dobell02-Apr-2012Chris Woakes, the Warwickshire allrounder, will miss the first six to eight weeks of the season after damaging his ankle ligaments on Warwickshire’s pre-season tour to Barbados.He sustained the injury in the final of the Banks Barbados Cup Final at the Kensington Oval. Sliding to stop a ball in the field, Woakes’ studs stuck in the turf in an episode reminiscent of Simon Jones’ career-threatening injury at Brisbane in 2002. Warwickshire initially feared that Woakes had broken his ankle.Woakes has been referred to ECB medical staff who have arranged for him to see a specialist to asses the length of his absence.The news is a substantial blow to the county’s Championship hopes. Woakes, 23, has emerged as a key allrounder in recent seasons and averaged 48.25 with the bat and 21.78 with the ball in first-class cricket last season. A bowler capable of swinging the ball both ways, Woakes might have been expected to prove particularly dangerous on early season wickets.The injury also a setback to Woakes’ own international ambitions. He has played four ODIs and three T20Is and retains hopes of forcing his way into the England Test side in all formats. He is expected to miss the first four rounds of championship games and the opening CB40 fixture.Warwickshire received better news of Tim Ambrose, the former England wicketkeeper. He underwent hip surgery over the winter and was not expected to be fit for the first couple of rounds of games. But he is recovering ahead of schedule and is now hoping to be available when the club’s season starts in earnest with a championship game against Somerset at Edgbaston on April 12.