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Andy Flower, the England team director, could miss the ODI tour of India in January as the ECB looksto ease his workload

George Dobell20-Nov-2012Andy Flower, the England team director, could miss the ODI leg of England’s tour of India in January as the ECB looks to ease his workload.Ashley Giles, Warwickshire’s director of cricket who is currently in India as England’s selector on tour, is in contention to deputise for Flower along with his long-regarded natural heir, England assistant coach Richard Halsall.Flower’s relentless schedule has been a concern to the ECB for some time. Few players are required for all three formats of the game but Flower is intimately involved in the planning, selection and management of the ODI, Test and T20 teams. While individual players have enjoyed rest periods, Flower has been granted only an occasional, brief absence. It is understood there is a particular concern that the Kevin Pietersen saga left Flower drained.The ECB has, therefore, urged Flower to take a break. It believes that investing in a period of rest will help retain Flower’s services for several more years and ensure he remains enthused and motivated.Halsall has deputised for Flower in the past. He stood in for two days of the first Ashes Test in Brisbane in November 2010 when Flower required surgery to remove a melanoma from below his right eye and also when Flower was given a break for the ODI in Dublin in August 2011.But it is understood that Giles is seen as a more suitable long-term substitute. Giles, a former England player and current national selector, recently led Warwickshire to the County Championship title and is emerging as the obvious natural successor to Flower. There could be an element of succession planning in his temporary appointment.No final decision has been made and other options are being considered. Flower could also skip the ODI or the Test section of the New Zealand tour in February. But, with the next World Cup to be played in New Zealand and Australia in 2015, Flower will be reluctant to miss an opportunity to see players in those conditions.

Thisara Perera’s three-wicket burst derailed the India innings and put Sri Lanka on course for their thumping nine-wicket win in Hambantota

The Report by George Binoy24-Jul-2012
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsThisara Perera took three wickets before conceding a run•AFPFor the first three overs on a blustery afternoon in Hambantota, Sri Lanka looked thrown. Running in through strong winds, their opening bowlers found rhythm elusive and lines hard to control. Lasith Malinga got no movement; the debutant Isuru Udana’s first over comprised 11 balls and contained 16 runs; there were careless overthrows and misfields; and India scored 31 for 0 with barely a risk. And then Thisara Perera, in the midst of his best home summer, changed everything and turned Sri Lanka’s quest to draw level in the series into a cruise.Perera made the ball swing in the air and seam off the surface. He did not bowl grenades, but he did not need to. Against accurate lengths and stingy lines, India’s batsmen weren’t far from playing an impatient shot. Perera took a wicket in each of his first three overs without conceding a run, and he could have had a fourth had Angelo Mathews not dropped MS Dhoni at first slip. His spell of 3-3-0-3 left India on 41 for 4 after eight overs, a slide that did not subside.As India collapsed like an undercooked cake at one end, Gautam Gambhir held the other up. He’d begun with a crisp square drive and a flick off the pads as early as Malinga’s second over, but his steadiness was swamped by the ineptness of his team-mates. He nearly became the first India player to carry his bat in a one-day international but was the last man out, for 65.Having dismissed India for 138 in the 34th over, Sri Lanka had nine overs to bat before the dinner break. The wind was still blowing in Hambantota, and Upul Tharanga and Tillakaratne Dilshan capitalised on several loose deliveries to score 64 before the interval. The remaining 75 was added without much alarm as well, though Dilshan’s dismissal prevented Sri Lanka from achieving their first ten-wicket victory against India in ODIs.Smart stats

The number of balls remaining for Sri Lanka at the end of their successful chase (181) is the second-highest for them in an ODI against India. The highest is 209 in Dambulla in 2010. It is also the second-biggest defeat for India against any team in terms of balls remaining.

The nine-wicket win equals Sri Lanka’s best ever victory margin in a chase against India. The previous nine-wicket win came in Colombo in 1996.

Tillakaratne Dilshan and Upul Tharanga were involved in their ninth century stand. This takes them joint-third on the list of Sri Lankan pairs with most century stands. The pair now has the most century stands (9) for Sri Lanka for the opening wicket.

This is the 18th time that India have been bowled out in an innings lasting less than 35 overs. It is also the fourth such occurrence for India in ODIs in Sri Lanka (third against Sri Lanka) in ODIs since 2008.

The number of deliveries bowled in the game (320) is the fifth-lowest in an India-Sri Lanka ODI. Three of the top four, however, were rain-affected games.

Gautam Gambhir, who was the last man dismissed, closely missed out on becoming the only Indian batsman to carry his bat through a completed innings (team all out).

Thisara Perera won his sixth player-of-the-match award in just his 41st match. His rate of an award every seven matches is better than any Sri Lankan player with six-plus match awards.

The momentum shift after Dhoni won his second toss in two games, and chose to bat in favourable conditions, had been sudden. It occurred when Perera lunged to his right, throwing his large frame against the momentum of his follow through, to catch with both hands a loose push from Virender Sehwag. In his second over, Perera got rid of the bogeyman by inducing a thick edge from Virat Kohli, who had hundreds in his previous three innings against Sri Lanka. He made 1 today after failing to execute a steer to third man.Perera hurt India further in his third over. Suresh Raina hung his bat outside off stump, reaching for the ball angling across him without fluent footwork, and played on. A ball later, he found another edge, off Dhoni’s bat, but it was put down at first slip.Mathews, who had extended Rohit Sharma’s wretched run by bowling him off the inside edge for a duck, soon made amends for his gaffe. He got the ball to bounce off a good length, cramp Dhoni for room on the cut and take the edge to Sangakkara. Between those edges, Dhoni had played two fluent off drives against Perera for boundaries.After Irfan Pathan holed out to Perera at mid-off, Gambhir and R Ashwin put on 28 for the seventh wicket before a comical run-out ended the partnership. Having cut the ball towards third man, Ashwin wanted a third but was sent back. His turning radius was so large and his movement so slow that he failed to cover the short distance even though he dived. Gambhir looked on in despair. Sri Lanka ended the India innings well before dinner; the only pity was there were so few people to watch their clinical performance.The crowd was bigger when Sri Lanka began their chase and the sound of celebratory trumpets was ever-present. The hosts could have lost Dilshan on 1 but Sehwag grassed the edge off the attempted booming drive against Irfan. India barely had another opportunity. Dilshan scored at more than a run-a-ball despite hitting only four boundaries. Tharanga, in contrast, hit fours more frequently, freeing his arms to play the drive and the cut when given room outside off stump.Both India’s left-arm bowlers – Zaheer Khan and Irfan – bowled wayward lines in the wind. Between them, they conceded 14 runs through wides. There were 24 extras in all. India were a beaten side before the dinner break and Dilshan flicked the first ball after resumption to the midwicket boundary, continuing Sri Lanka’s inexorable march towards victory, which was achieved with 30.1 overs to spare.

To paraphrase that north-eastern philosopher Terry Collier, of The Likely Lads fame, Lancashire and Durham supporters have hardly been filled with jollity and merriment this season with no wins beteween them in 13 matches

Paul Edwards30-May-2012
ScorecardGraham Onions’ four wickets put Durham back into the match against Lancashire but Paul Horton’s dogged innings held his side together•Getty ImagesTo paraphrase that north-eastern philosopher Terry Collier, of The Likely Lads fame, the homes of Lancashire and Durham supporters have hardly been filled with jollity and merriment this season. In Bacup and Blaydon, expectations have had to be adjusted downwards as the teams who have bagged the title in three of the last four years have failed to muster a championship win between them in 13 attempts.So it was not surprising that the first day’s play at Chester-le-Street saw both sides exhibit the batting frailties that have bedevilled their early seasons. Eighteen wickets fell, and by no means all of them could be explained by the pitch or the atmosphere, helpful as the latter was.For the sixth time in nine completed first-class innings this year Durham were dismissed for under 164 and their 102 all out was their lowest total since they managed a mere 90 against Lancashire at Old Trafford in 2008.For their part, Lancashire have been bowled out for fewer than 200 six times this season and it astonished few pundits when they lost four wickets, all of them to the resurgent Graham Onions, in reaching 19. Paul Horton and Luke Procter then ground out 44 runs for the fifth wicket but even that most modest of revivals was stifled when Procter played an uncharacteristically loose cut to Ben Stokes.Horton ploughed doggedly on, though, batting throughout the 40 overs faced by Lancashire. Helped by Gareth Cross, Glen Chapple and Kyle Hogg, he batted , making 31 not out off 103 balls, and by the close Lancashire had carved out an advantage of 39 runs. For all that he was bowled by a Jamie Harrison no-ball when on six and dropped at slip by Gordon Muchall off Stokes when 11, Horton’s was a gutsy effort, well befitting the man who batted nearly eight hours to save a game against Warwickshire less than a fortnight ago.The consequences of his vigilance may be considerable here too: an advantage of 50 runs could be decisive in this match.”Paul’s effort was brilliant because to come away with 30 out there is like getting 50 or 60 in normal conditions,” said Procter. “He held the innings together and people batted round him. Kyle Hogg’s still there and we’ve a chance of building a vital lead.”Nevertheless, when wickets fall with such a clatter, suspicious eyes are directed towards the pitch or the atmosphere, and there was certainly enough in the conditions to encourage Chapple’s decision to bowl first on winning the toss.However, the first four Durham wickets all owed more to batting error than any other factor, with Hogg taking three wickets in six balls, the best of them that of Stokes, who edged a catch to Cross when trying to take the bat away. Will Smith, though, was bowled round his legs and Muchall simply chased a wide one – which he thought he didn’t touch. Mark Stoneman had begun the decline by steering Chapple straight to Simon Kerrigan at square leg.Dale Benkenstein and Paul Collingwood added 44 runs for the fifth wicket – precisely as Procter and Horton did in the late afternoon – but any hopes of prolonged circumspection dissolved when the Zimbabwean edged a slash off Procter to Cross.That was the start of a remarkable spell for Procter, the Oldham-born medium-fast bowler, who profited from the increasingly heavy atmosphere to take a career-best five for 17. Collingwood was lbw for 25 when half forward to Procter as Mustard’s side lost their last four wickets in just 7.3 overs of the afternoon session.Rain prevented Lancashire beginning their innings for nearly two hours, but if the clouds were higher when the game resumed, the threat of Onions was in no way diminished.As if attempting to batter his way into the England side regardless of rotation policies or player fatigue, the Durham seamer extracted enough movement from the wicket to persuade both Stephen Moore and Ashwell Prince to give slip catches. Karl Brown was trapped on the crease by one that came back into him and Croft departed having played an ugly slash.Perhaps the Lancashire batsman was not prepared to wait for the ball “with his name on it”, although as Horton could later testify, it doesn’t half help if that delivery is a no-ball.

ESPNcricinfo previews the triangular series ODI between Australia and India in Sydney

The Preview by Siddarth Ravindran25-Feb-2012Match factsFebruary 26, Sydney
Start time 1420 (0320 GMT)India will hope Virender Sehwag can shrug off his recent troubles•Getty ImagesBig PictureIndia are usually known to be slow starters, but in the CB series, they were top of the table at the halfway stage. A week later, India are now sliding towards the exit. Not only have they lost their previous two matches, there has been plenty of off-field drama as well.”Rift” and “communication breakdown” are the words dominating India’s sports pages over the past few days, with board officials reverting to the usual “he was misquoted” refrain to try to douse the controversy. The Indian media manager addressed the press to ostensibly bring clarity on the matter, though the mantra of that session was “let’s look ahead and forget about the past”.With India most likely needing to win both their remaining matches to qualify, their rotation policy is being shelved. All three of their experienced batsmen – Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir – are set to feature despite MS Dhoni’s now famous claims that playing all three together would cost the team 20 runs in the field. Dhoni himself will return from a one-match suspension, adding steel to the listless lower middle-order.Australia, on the other hand, have had far fewer problems in giving their youngsters opportunities. Ricky Ponting and Brad Haddin have been eased out of the side, and their place has been taken by Peter Forrest and Matthew Wade. They have an easier route to the final as well, with one win guaranteeing them qualification.Form guideAustralia LWLLW (Most recent first)
India LLTWWIn the spotlightIndia’s death bowling has cost them dearly in the last couple of matches: 101 against Australia at the Gabba when Dan Christian and David Hussey took them apart; 91 against Sri Lanka on Tuesday, when Virender Sehwag decided to use Suresh Raina and Virat Kohli for the final two overs instead of the specialists. Who will Dhoni turn to on Sunday?David Warner had a glorious Test summer, defying critics with his strong performances at the top of the order. His one-day form has been less bright – he has still to make a half-century after eight matches. With Shane Watson returning to full fitness, Warner has had to give up the vice-captain’s spot. He might give up a place in the XI as well, if he doesn’t provide the selectors another reminder of his explosive ability.Team newsThe main question for Australia to ponder is how to accommodate Watson in the XI. One of David Warner and Daniel Christian will have to make way if Watson is to play his first home game of the summer. Michael Clarke pulled up with a stiff back against Sri Lanka when he scored a half-century. He expected to be ready for Sunday’s game, but if he pulls out, Watson could be captaining Australia in his comeback game. The other change the hosts may consider is bringing in Clint McKay for Ryan Harris, who was feeling his knee rather gingerly after taking a tumble while fielding against Sri Lanka on Friday.Australia (possible) 1 David Warner, 2 Matthew Wade (wk), 3 Michael Clarke (capt), 4 Peter Forrest, 5 Michael Hussey, 6 David Hussey, 7 Daniel Christian/Shane Watson, 8 Brett Lee, 9 Clint McKay/Ryan Harris, 10 Xavier Doherty, 11 Ben Hilfenhaus.India are missing their most experienced bowler, Zaheer Khan, to a calf injury, while a hamstring problem is likely to sideline their regular new-ball bowler Vinay Kumar. That means Praveen Kumar, a revelation during the CB series four years ago, will return to the XI.India (possible) 1 Sachin Tendulkar, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 Virat Kohli, 5 MS Dhoni (capt & wk), 6 Suresh Raina, 7 Ravindra Jadeja, 8 Irfan Pathan, 9 R Ashwin, 10 Praveen Kumar, 11 Umesh Yadav.Pitch and conditionsThe only match of this series in Sydney proved to be a low-scoring encounter with Sri Lanka’s medium-pacers dismantling Australia. Sunday is expected to be a pleasant day for cricket, with a maximum temperature of 29C.Stats and trivia India had lost all 11 of their ODIs against Australia at the SCG, before beating them in the 2007-08 CB series final Over the past 12 months, Dhoni averages 80 in ODIs, at a strike-rate of 89.97 Quotes”It [yesterday’s result] has made the calculation easier. Rather than thinking of anything else, we need to win games. How we win is not really important.”

Edited by Nikita Bastian

تحدث محمد عبد الجليل لاعب الأهلي الأسبق، عن مباراة القلعة الحمراء المقبلة أمام ريال مدريد في كأس العالم للأندية، كما علق على تأهل الهلال السعودي لنهائي البطولة.

ومن المقررة أن تقام مباراة الأهلي وريال مدريد مساء غد الأربعاء، على أرضية استاد مولاي عبد الله في نصف نهائي مونديال الأندية.

وقال محمد عبد الجليل في تصريحات تلفزيونية عبر قناة أي تي سي: “تأهل الهلال إلى نهائي المونديال منطقي بالنظر إلى إمكانيات الفريق السعودي، كما أن هذا الانتصار سيرفع طموحات جماهير الأهلي غدًا من أجل تحقيق المفاجأة والصعود إلى المباراة النهائية على حساب ريال مدريد”.

وتابع: “يجب أن نصدق أنفسنا بأننا لدينا فريق كبير بحجم النادي الأهلي، والدليل الإشادة الكبيرة التي تلقاها الفريق من كارلو أنشيلوتي مدرب ريال مدريد، وكل الجماهير المصرية بالتأكيد تتمنى فوز المارد الأحمر، ما عدا نسبة قليلة للغاية لا تتمنى ذلك”.

طالع | الأهلي يسعى لتحقيق إنجاز تاريخي أمام ريال مدريد في نصف نهائي كأس العالم للأندية

وأكمل: “بالتأكيد، سيكون هناك حالة قلق داخل ريال مدريد من الأهلي، خصوصا بعد خسارة فلامينجو أمام الهلال، وهذا الأمر يشعرني بالفخر، وانتهى عصر التمثيل المشرف، علينا أن نطمح للفوز وتحقيق البطولات الكبرى، أصبح لدينا لاعبين مميزين وفريق منظم، والأهلي وصل لمصاف الأندية العالمية”.

وأردف: “نسبة فوز الأهلي على ريال مدريد 30%، لكنها قد تصل إلى 50% وفقًا لحالة اللاعبين داخل أرضية الملعب، وحالة التوفيق التي تصاحب أي لاعب تكون نقطة فاصلة في اللقاء”.

واختتم: “كان هناك حالة قلق قبل البطولة، لكن الأهلي قدم مستوى جيد أمام أوكلاند سيتي ثم سياتل ساوندرز الأمريكي، وكولر يحترم منافسيه، لذلك لعب بـ3 لاعبين في وسط الملعب”.

كشفت تقارير صحفية بريطانية عن موقف نادي مانشستر يونايتد الإنجليزي بشأن التعاقد مع ماركو رويس خلال فترة الانتقالات الشتوية الجارية.

ارتبط رويس قائد فريق بوروسيا دورتموند الألماني، بالانتقال إلى مانشستر يونايتد الإنجليزي خلال فترة الانتقالات الشتوية.

صحيفة “ديلي ميل” البريطانية، كشفت عن موقف مانشستر يونايتد النهائي بشأن التعاقد مع رويس، وهو أن النادي استبعد الفكرة.

مانشستر يونايتد صرف النظر عن التعاقد مع رويس، لأن المدرب إريك تين هاج لا يحتاج التعاقد مع صانع ألعاب، خاصة أن طريقة لعبه في كثير من الأحيان لا تحتاج لهذا المركز.

عامل السن أيضًا بين العوامل التي جعلت مانشستر يونايتد يصرف النظر عن صاحب الـ33 عامًا، خاصة أن مسيرة اللاعب تدهورت بسبب الإصابات، ومع تقدم العمر سيصبح لذلك تأثير على مستوى الألماني.

Suresh Raina, who is India’s captain for the limited-overs leg of the tour of West Indies, admitted there will be huge expectations from his team despite the absence of some big names, and has said he was looking forward to the challenge

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Jun-2011

Suresh Raina, who is India’s captain for the limited-overs leg of the tour of West Indies, has admitted there will be huge expectations from his team despite the absence of some big names.”[Being captain] is a great challenge to me and I’m really looking forward to that,” Raina said on the team’s arrival in the Caribbean. “We have good players who want to do well in this series. They have done well in first-class cricket and the IPL or in the World Cup team.”For the ODIs, India will be without regular captain MS Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, and Zaheer Khan, who have been rested, while Gautam Gambhir, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag miss out through injury or illness. Dhoni and Zaheer are set to return for the Tests, but the other seniors are set to miss the entire series. The tour will also be Duncan Fletcher’s first assignment with the Indian side.Raina said the senior players “deserved a break” and was hopeful the youngsters in the squad would make the most of the opportunity. “We have a young team here and they are focussed on doing well for India and I am excited to see how they perform over the next few weeks.”West Indies lost their recent ODI series to Pakistan and will once again be without opener Chris Gayle, who was the top run-getter in the IPL, but has been left out for the first two ODIs. When India last played ODIs in the West Indies in 2006, they lost 1-4. The two teams subsequently met in the World Cup earlier this year when India won by 80 runs in Chennai, en route to their tournament triumph. Raina, however, said India would not be complacent. “The West Indies team has been playing good cricket for the past few months and we are not going to take them lightly,” he said.The only Twenty20 game will be played on Saturday at Port of Spain, while the five-match ODI series begins at the same venue on June 6.Meanwhile West Indies beat the High Performance Centre (HPC) team by 11 runs in a practice Twenty20 game in Couva on Thursday. Batting first, West Indies were restricted to 145 in their 20 overs on what appeared to be a good batting pitch. Opener Lendl Simmons carried on his good form from the Pakistan series, top-scoring with a rapid 43, while Danza Hyatt made 22.Uncapped left-arm seamer Krishmar Santokie, who has been picked in the Twenty20 squad, and Christopher Barnwell shared two wickets apiece as HPC were restricted to 134 for 6. Wicketkeeper-batsman Shane Dowrich was their mainstay with 52 off 41 balls.

تحدث الهاني سليمان حارس مرمي نادي سموحة، عن التعادل الذي حققه فريقه أمام الأهلي في مباراة أمس الأحد ببطولة الدوري المصري الممتاز.

الأهلي تعادل مع سموحة سلبيًا، في إطار الجولة التاسعة من عمر بطولة الدوري، وذلك على ملعب الأهلي وي السلام.

وقال سليمان خلال تصريحات عبر قناة “أون تايم سبورتس2” لبرنامج “جمهور التالتة”: “أنا لم أهدر الوقت، لو كنت أضيع وقت لماذا لم يمنحني الحكم بطاقة صفراء؟ أنا ليس من شأني التعليق على تصريحات مارسيل كولر المدير الفني للأهلي بشأن إضاعة الوقت في مباراة، أنا أتحدث عن فريقي فقط”.

وتابع: “نحن نلعب بطريقة دفاعية ونغلق المساحات وهذا لم يخلق فرصًا للأهلي وأعطى شعور للجميع أن المباراة واقفة ولا تسير بسرعة، لكن لا يوجد أي مدير فني يقول للاعبين أضيعوا الوقت”.

طالع | طارق العشري يرد على كولر: تعلمت من جوزيه التركيز مع فريقي فقط

وأضاف ضاحكًا: “نصيحة مني للمسؤولين عن الرياضة في مصر ألا يُدخِلوا تقنية احتساب الوقت الضائع للدوري”.

وعن الانضمام لمنتخب مصر، أوضح: “أتدرب وأفعل ما علي، ولا يُمكن لأحد أن يُجبر الجهاز الفني على اختيار لاعب لضمه، أنا أعمل بشكل جيد، لو تم اختياري سيكون أمر جيدًا وإن لم يتم اختياري سأجتهد أكثر”.

وعن اللقطة في الدقيقة 92 عندما أخذ الكرة ونظر خلفه، قال: “أمسكت الكرة وكنت أنظر خلفي لأن حسين الشحات كان يقف خلفي مثل الذئب وينتظرني لكي أضع الكرة على الأرض ويأخذها مني”.

The innocuous practice game had more reasons to be forgotten than to be remembered despite the centuries by Ahmed Shehzad and Misbah-ul-Haq and Junaid Siddique’s brave approach

The Bulletin by Mohammad Isam15-Feb-2011
ScorecardThe innocuous practice game had more reasons to be forgotten than to be remembered despite the centuries by Ahmed Shehzad and Misbah-ul-Haq and Junaid Siddique’s brave approach. Pakistan beat Bangladesh convincingly by 89 runs at the Shere Bangla Stadium in Mirpur and it was a game that reminded Bangladesh of holes in their system and gave the young Pakistan batsman ideal practice ahead of their first big tournament.The Pakistan dressing room went through a nervy first 90 minutes before settling in with the 152-run stand between Misbah and Shehzad, but the battle for the ‘story of the day’, as far as the locals were concerned, would be a tight contest between the ticket bungle-up and Bangladesh’s four dropped catches.When Shehzad walked in with Mohammad Hafeez to open the innings, the ground was half-full with most of the ticket-holders left stranded at a nearby indoor stadium with vouchers in hand. Shehzad cut and drove with ease though wickets fell quickly for Pakistan. After Hafeez drove straight at Mahmudullah at cover, Kamran Akmal and Younis Khan succumbed as soon as spin was introduced, Kamran miscuing a drive and Abdur Razzak foxing Younis for 5.The game changed as soon as Misbah took over, with each left-arm spinner looking more ineffective than the other. Razzak and Suhrawadi Shuvo bowled a poor line and their frustration was compounded by dropping catches off each other at long-off when Shehzad was on 42 and 56. Hafeez too had a let-off when Siddique dropped him on 16, a simple chance at midwicket, while Mohammad Ashraful found Shahid Afridi’s skier at mid-off hard to handle.”The four dropped catches were a bit disappointing. Razzak has never been our best fielder but the others were really disappointing,” Jamie Siddons, the Bangladesh coach, said. “I’m glad it was a practice game and not the 19th.”Shehzad’s batting gave Pakistan hope as it reaffirmed his position at the top of the order alongside Hafeez, who did a fine job in New Zealand. Shehzad latched into anything short and there were many opportunities. He hit nine boundaries and a six in his 122-ball 103. “I think he looked really good and he has been doing well since theNew Zealand tour where he got a century in the last game,” Pakistan’s coach Waqar Younis said. “He is in superb touch, and for a young man to be so responsible at such a big stage, it was great.”It was Misbah’s timing, however, that caught the eye, his run-a-ball 100 had four big sixes and eight boundaries. He was severe on the spinners, cutting and punching the ball with ease, a handy lesson for batsmen on both sides.Bangladesh’s chase had a terrible start when Tamim Iqbal played down the wrong line to Abdul Razzaq’s first delivery of the innings. Siddique’s courage to open up his game was a surprise. Some of his boundaries were exquisite, mainly forcing the ball down the ground but even making room to hit Razzaq over covers. But he holed out to Asad Shafiq off Wahab Riaz, whom Siddique had struck for a six over square-leg an over ago. His 28-ball 38 included six boundaries and the six, and he added with Imrul Kayes, who made 39.Bangladesh’s experiment to use Mushfiqur Rahim at No. 4 failed and so did Ashraful after he struck a boundary off his first ball. Razzaq picked up Shakib and Ashraful after he took out Tamim. Once the game slipped out of Bangladesh’s grasp, they used a longer batting line-up to give their batsmen a go before the big game against India on February 19. The result ensured a few more tense net sessions for Siddons and Shakib.

Celtic had one of their busier summer transfer windows last time out as Ange Postecoglou made a significant mark on the squad at Parkhead.

However, not every player that was brought in during that period has gone on to play a big part for the club in their latest SPFL campaign.

One player that fits into this category is defender Osaze Urhoghide, who made the move to Celtic Park from Sheffield Wednesday in a deal worth around £200k.

The 20-year-old made just one senior appearance for the Hoops which came during their 3-2 win over Real Betis in the Europa League before he joined Belgian club KV Oostende on loan in January.

In that game against Betis, the youngster managed to showcase the defensive talent he has whilst playing in the right-back position by racking up five tackles and three clearances as well as winning nine of the 15 duels he was involved in.

Since moving to Belgium, the £7k-per-week defender has played the full 90 minutes in each of Oostende’s six previous league games, all as a centre-back.

In the seven league games he’s played in, the Celtic loanee has won 12 tackles and made 22 interceptions, highlighting what he’s capable of when given the chance to play regularly.

In terms of his overall performances, Urhoghide has earned himself a rating of 6.81/10 from WhoScored, making him the second-highest rated player at the Belgian club, which emphasises the positive impact he’s had since joining.

Labelled as “great lad who puts his head in where it hurts,” by Neal Ardley as well as being a “brave” and “athletic” player that “will give you everything he’s got,” the defender could be an ideal option for Postecoglou at Celtic next season.

Taking all of this into account, it would definitely be worth giving the Englishman a real chance of showing what he can do to offer the team in the SPFL during their next campaign.

Also, with there being no guarantee as of yet that the Bhoys will be able to secure their current loan defender Cameron Carter-Vickers on a permanent deal from Tottenham Hotspur, having Urhoghide ready to be unleashed could end up saving Postecoglou and the club millions in potential transfer fees.

In other news: Sold for £2m, now worth £540k: Celtic struck gold on £17k-p/w dud who “had issues”