All posts by csb10.top

50 overs
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out

James Franklin’s calmness under pressure and Michael Mason’s last-ball four clinched a nail-biting one-wicket victory against Sri Lanka in the second ODI at Queenstown. Set a modest 225-run target after a superb 89 from Kumar Sangakkara, New Zealand threatened to collapse as Muttiah Muralitharan led a mid-innings fightback. But Franklin rallied with an unbeaten 45 and Mason hit the last ball of the game for four to end 2006 in style.Needing one run to win off the last over with one wicket in hand, Sanath Jayasuriya summoned all his ODI experience and bowled five excruciating dot balls at Mason while Franklin watched helpless from the non-striker’s end. However, Mason kept his nerve and lofted the last ball back over Jayasuriya’s head for four to level the series at 1-1.When New Zealand began their innings, such a close finish seemed impossible. They were off to a flier with Brendon McCullum, revelling in his new role as an aggressive opener, and James Marshall taking the attack to the new-ball bowlers. McCullum kick-started the innings with a brace of boundaries and one imperious six over square leg forcing Mahela Jayawardene into making an early change after Lasith Malinga’s first four overs leaked 29 runs.It proved to be an inspired change too. Farveez Maharoof struck with his first legitimate delivery, winning a dubious lbw decision from Gary Baxter, the local umpire, against McCullum who was hit outside the line. The fortuitous breakthrough ended a 57-run partnership in 9.1 overs and allowed Sri Lanka to claw their way slowly but surely back into the contest.Some poor running between the wickets led to Ross Taylor being run out by a pinpoint throw from Chamara Silva at cover and when Peter Fulton became Muralitharan’s first victim of the day, trapped lbw by an off-break, New Zealand were wobbling on 91 for 3. But they cobbled together a useful partnership with Daniel Vettori and James Marshall adding 30 runs to swing the pressure back onto Jayawardene.However, James Marshall’s frenetic running between the wickets opened another window for Sri Lanka. He called for a suicidal single and Malinga pounced at mid-on, swooping athletically and throwing down the stumps off-balance. Next over, Craig McMillan, on his comeback to international cricket after one year on the sidelines, edged Muralitharan’s doosra to slip.The initiative was now swinging strongly to Sri Lanka and Jayawardene took the opportunity to play his wildcard: Malinga. Once again, the bowling change worked with Malinga conjuring a perfect yorker that sent Vettori’s off stump cart-wheeling and New Zealand were reeling at 141 for 6.

The stage was perfectly set for Hamish Marshall to reward the faith placed in him by the patient New Zealand selectors, but just when he appeared to be steering his team home, having added 34 with Franklin, he clipped back a return catch to Tillakaratne Dilshan. Jayawardene quickly recalled Muralitharan for his final over and he duly delivered, pinning Andrew Adams lbw.Sri Lanka were on the brink of a 2-0 victory with New Zealand on 194 for 8. But Franklin took over responsibility and found a determined partner in Mark Gillespie. While Franklin picked up runs in orthodox fashion, trusting his partner with the strike, Gillespie choose more novel means to keep out Malinga’s toecrushers. Somehow, moving to leg and then jabbing downwards, he survived.A total of 15 runs were needed from the final three overs and Malinga then conceded eight runs. Vaas conceded five from his next three deliveries and the match looked over. However, there was time for another twist as Gillespie, smote a low full toss straight to Maharoof at mid off. Crucially, Franklin had crossed before the catch was taken and was on strike. With two runs to defend, Vaas bowled a critical wide that ensured New Zealand could not lose. Franklin could not win it off the last ball of the penultimate over and watched as Mason patted back five dot balls before securing victory.Earlier, New Zealand capitalised on winning the toss by early wickets and producing a far more disciplined display than in the first match at Naiper. Jayasuriya and Jayawardene both fell early, leaving Sri Lanka at 14 for 2. A mini-recovery followed with Sangakkara and Upul Tharanga adding 36 before Tharanga edged to Ross Taylor at first slip after a leaden-footed flash outside off-stump.Sangakkara was in good form, picking up boundaries whenever the bowlers did err in their length, but run-scoring became increasingly difficult during the middle overs while Vettori bowled straight through his allotment of overs. Between the 25th and 36th over Sri Lanka were unable to score a boundary. But Sangakkara continued to hold the innings together during a workmanlike 74-run stand with Silva.A cruel piece of luck denied Sangakkara a century and checked the momentum once again as Andre Adams deflected a firm straight drive from Silva onto the stumps. Minutes later, Silva lost control of a cover drive and skewed a catch to backward point. With two new batsmen, Dilshan and Maharoof, at the crease the run-rate dropped and this was proved decisive in the end.

It’s not a tag you would want to hand any young cricketer, but Stuart Broad’s success in the early days of his international career is already getting him dubbed as Andrew Flintoff’s successor. Although he has some way to go to match the all-round performances of Flintoff, it is Broad’s efforts with the ball that are raising expectations.He has claimed six wickets in the first three ODIs against New Zealand; he was the one shining light in the opening six-wicket defeat in Wellington and played a key role in the comeback win in Auckland with 3 for 32. His first spell in that match was an outstanding 7-1-12-2 and helped set the tone for England’s victory.After 24 matches Broad has 36 wickets despite taking just five in his first six matches. Among England bowlers with at least 30 ODI scalps, Broad’s strike-rate of 33.8 puts him second behind Flintoff by just one decimal point. However, the most important thing for Broad is that he is continuing to learn and develop his bowling.”At first, I barely picked up a wicket and I wondered where one was coming from,” he told . “I think the more you play, the more you learn how to take wickets in different scenarios. I feel I’m learning when to bowl balls and when to bowl a bouncer a bit better, but it does depend on which role you’re doing.”Coming on first change, when Jimmy [James Anderson] and Ryan [Sidebottom] have bowled well up front, it’s a lot easier to come on when the pressure is on the batsman and get some wickets so that has helped me out massively.”Broad didn’t escape the hammering that England’s attack received during the second ODI in Hamilton when Jesse Ryder and Brendon McCullum slammed 165 in little more than 18 overs. His three overs went for 32, but it isn’t the first time Broad has had to come back from some severe punishment. During the ICC World Twenty20 he was clubbed for six sixes in an over by Yuvraj Singh and quickly pushed it to the back of his mind.”International cricket is a fantastic place to play because you know that if you’re not at the top of your game, you get punished and it makes you keep your standards high,” he said “You learn from your mistakes and you learn quickest if you bounce back. County cricket is still a very good standard but you can still get away with a few things.”International cricket really makes you nail your variations. I’ve come in and worked on different cutters and slower balls and not running up and bowling at the same pace with the stock ball – little things like that really help and hopefully when I go back to county cricket, I will implement them there as well.”

The ECB have announced that the 50-over domestic competition, currently the C&G Trophy, will include a semi-final stage in 2007. There was been widespread criticism of the current format with just the top team for the North and South conference going into the final at Lord’sHugh Morris, the ECB’s deputy chief executive, said that the decisionhad been taken by the ECB board but it had been widely expected following calls from players and county officals to reduce the number of dead matches.”There were extremely strong cricketing reasons for reintroducing a semi final stage in next year’s competition,” said Morris. “The introduction of semi-finals will increase the intensity of the competition during the popular regional group stages. This move will benefit the players and the spectators alike.”This year’s C&G Final will take place at Lord’s on Saturday August 26 between Sussex and either Durham or Lancashire, with the final round of qualifying matches being played this Sunday.

Allan Border has tipped a 2-1 Ashes series win for Australia, but he warned the hosts would under-rate England “at our own peril”. Border said Australia’s home-ground advantage would prove crucial in the campaign to regain the Ashes.”Overall, England are a good cricket team, but I just think at home we have got the players, as long as they all stay fit, to get those Ashes back,” Border told . “If England have some injury problems I think we will win and win well, but if they get their full complement here I’ll give them a Test match and I think we will get two, so 2-1 will do me.”Border, the second-highest run-scorer in Test history, nominated the allrounder Andrew Flintoff as England’s main threat, but said Steve Harmison and the captain Michael Vaughan could also cause damage if they recovered from injury. “To me they still have the basis of a very good team once they get all their players fit,” he said. “If they keep Flintoff fit and they get Harmison back and Vaughan back after his knee injury they’ll be very competitive. We under-rate them at our peril.”The first Ashes Test begins on November 23 at Brisbane and Justin Langer, one of Australia’s injury concerns, has been cleared of lasting damage after he was struck by a Makhaya Ntini bouncer in his 100th game in April. “I had some tests during the week and I passed with flying colours,” he said in .Langer will use a six-week assignment with Somerset to get some game time in the lead up to the Ashes. “The fact is I have not faced a ball since that last Test in South Africa,” he told the paper. “If I don’t go it would mean I had not played cricket, or faced bowling in a game, for probably five months before the season starts. This will be excellent timing to get in among the action again.”

In the wake of the most serious drugs scandal to hit cricket, Shoaib Akhtar, the man at the centre of it, has called for greater awareness to be created among cricketers, especially in Pakistan, about doping issues. Shoaib, along with fellow fast bowler Mohammad Asif, was handed a ban by a drugs tribunal after tests conducted by the PCB found traces of the banned anabolic steroid Nandrolone in his body. The bans were subsequently overturned by an appeals committee, clearing the way for both bowlers to return to cricket.Speaking to a few reporters at the National Bank of Pakistan ground in Karachi, where he was playing his first competitive game since the ban for his club side KRL, Shoaib said, “Many players are poorly educated about supplements, medication and doping issues. I’ve requested the chairman (PCB) to educate youngsters. Teach them now about these things. In 2002, the team attended a lecture where we were told only how to give urine samples.”Lectures are fine but there is no education. We weren’t told that you can and can’t take this. There are so many vitamins, so many different remedies, syrups that can carry steroids but we don’t know about them, we never learnt about them. I’ve had so many injuries in my career and taken so many medicines for them. But players are not doctors so they don’t always know.”Shoaib and Asif’s plea through the two hearings they underwent was that neither of them had taken steroids deliberately and that they weren’t properly informed or educated by the board. One possibility their lawyers had raised was that legal supplements, allowed by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) have been found in the past to be contaminated steroids. “Supplements are often contaminated and these are legal supplements,” argued Shoaib.”So WADA should be looking at the problem of contamination as well and maybe banning some of those. We haven’t had a team doctor for the last four years and no nutritionist. Thankfully, the chairman is thinking of bringing in doctors and nutritionists now so youngsters will definitely benefit. I never took any such substances knowingly.”In light of WADA’s recent statement, that they were considering challenging the decision to overturn the ban at the International Court of Arbitration, it is unlikely that this is the last we have heard on this issue. But Shoaib, understandably, was eager to look to the future. “I want to thank my family and the nation for supporting me. It’s been a tough time for me obviously but it’s over now. A lot has been said about it but it is behind me now. I want to concentrate on cricket now only and not look at the past.”

As it happens, there is a fair amount to look forward to, beginning with the tour to South Africa in January. Though he was suffering from a slight fever, he managed to ping down 12 overs in the first innings against WAPDA in the ongoing Patron’s Trophy match. Despite a duck in the second innings – he was greeted by a bouncer first ball – he came out to bowl a swift opening over in WAPDA’s second innings. “I’m fully fit. There was a little bit of stiffness obviously but the last spell I bowled was a quick one, even though the wicket is a little flat. But it’s good practice for me.”None of this is particularly good news for South Africa. After crashing to 84 all out on a pacy, bouncy track designed with their opponent’s frailties in mind, rather than their own, they are unlikely to do so against a Pakistan side with arguably as strong a pace attack as their own. “I’m not sure the wickets will be so fast there,” Shoaib said. “But they’re always sporting tracks, especially at Cape Town. Lets see what type of pitches they make especially if we have a full attack and they do as well.”We have excellent fast bowling resources. Umar Gul has bowled really well, Rana is back in form. And Sami is still an asset. I am hoping to get some more practice. But ultimately, it isn’t about me or any other one bowler, it is about the whole side performing. That is vital.”Beyond the tour awaits the World Cup in the Caribbean and Pakistan, says Shoaib, have as good a shot at glory as any. “We have the most balanced team in the world after Australia. The wickets there will be slow but the conditions are good for reverse swing and that should be an advantage for our bowlers. I am very keen to play but it won’t be about individuals. This is about the whole team doing well.”

Former Zimbabwe batsman Murray Goodwin is to play in South Africa for the Eastern Cape Warriors. He played 19 Tests between 1998 and 2000 and was one of the first in the country to turn his back on international cricket.”Murray is a great signing for the Warriors and it reinforces our strong desire and stated intent to put cricket in the area back on the map,” Dave Emslie, the franchise’s CEO, said. “Murray has extensive international experience and has identified very strongly with the role we have spelt out to him. His role will be first and foremost to score as many runs as possible and to be an example to our young players we are busy developing.”Goodwin has plied his trade across the world, with his most success coming at Sussex.

The first trial of a pink cricket ball took place at Lord’s today with MCC taking on Scotland in a 50-over friendly, as the lawmakers of the game investigate ways to find a more durable ball than the existing white one used in limited-overs cricket.Last year MCC, who have spent £10,000 on cricket balls for the 500 games they will play this year, approached Dr Anthony Bull, a bioengineer from Imperial College, to work with the ball manufacturers Kookaburra and produce a more durable alternative.The white ball has long caused contention with players and officials. Although much more visible than the traditional red-dyed ball against the backdrop of players’ coloured clothing, it is liable to discolour and deteriorate. Outfielders and batsmen are the obvious victims, but the other principle concern is with the delays involved in replacing the ball mid-game. No two balls are the same, either. The pink ball, as Bull explained, is a work in progress. Unlike traditional red balls, whose leather is dyed in a paraffin wax, other colours such as pink are painted on the surface which makes them liable to chip and fray. “For me, it’s about how the colour can stay in the leather, but clearly the technology is not there,” Bull said. “The manufacturers are just doing a paint job, a surface treatment.”Cricket is no stranger to pink in these metrosexually modern days. Matthew Hayden uses a bat with a pink grip to promote awareness of breast cancer, and last year Middlesex’s Twenty20 side strode out to Lord’s sporting salmon-pink kit. The colour of the new ball, however, is incidental. “It could be any colour, that’s the point,” Bull said. “If you can get something into the leather, it could be any colour.” Any colour but orange, it would seem, which was trialled without success in the early 1990s.The lush carpeted outfield and a spongy, green Lord’s wicket in April were not the most testing of conditions for the bright pink ball – abrasiveness is the white ball’s greatest enemy it seems – though it was impressively luminous on a very dull London day. Scotland didn’t appear to have much trouble picking it up, reaching 253 for 7 from their 50 overs, though MCC’s bowlers didn’t appear to gain the same prodigious swing which has characterised one-day cricket with a white ball.The experiments are being driven by MCC, but also by the manufacturers who, as Bull points out, are understandably keen to find a solution.”Manufacturers are very careful about their processes,” Bull said. “They’re putting all their technology into creating the pink ball, but they could apply all the same processes into producing another coloured ball. The red ball is dyed and it goes into the leather. For the pink ball, it is painted on in a very smart way, but therefore it’s very similar to the white ball in the way it is achieved.”Bull and his students have also begun exploratory investigation into the future of bats. The ICC banned Kookaburra’s graphite-reinforced bat on October 1 2006, but Bull is convinced that improvements can be made within the law. “The question for cricket is: do you want bats that allow a nick to go for six,” he says. “That’s the question. We’ve started looking at this very seriously. You could ‘hole out’ bats, or the surface covering of a bat could be of a certain stiffness to influence the characteristics of the bat. Does the sport want to allow that, though?”Most intriguingly of all, Bull believes it would be possible to enhance bats to make a ball travel “20% further” in the current definition of the law. The ramifications of this are obvious and undoubtedly exciting, but the question remains: does cricket want to allow batsmen yet another advantage, and whose responsibility is it to regulate such drastic technological advances in the sport?A pink ball, however, is rather less revolutionary and results from this first trial were encouraging. Bull’s dream goal – indeed, cricket’s too – is to exactly replicate the traditional red ball, which opens up the possibility of having one ball for all cricket.”We’re being led by the cricket world,” Bull said, “where the red ball is the optimum. The whole art or science of bowling, and swinging the ball, [happens with] the red ball, so what we need to do is simulate that with whatever colours we can get. The optimum would be to have one ball, of course, which behaved in the right way [for all cricket].”

Ricky Ponting says Phil Jaques will not be under significant pressure in the first Test against Sri Lanka as he is the only one of Australia’s potential new openers in form. Jaques will play his third Test when the series starts at the Gabba on Thursday and Ponting advised the newest member of his top order to “relax”.”[Chris] Rogers, [Brad] Hodge, [Shane] Watson and himself were the four mentioned, and he is the only one that has done anything at the start of this season, so he thoroughly deserves his opportunity,” Ponting told the . “If you look at things at the moment he’s the only one who has grabbed that opportunity.”Rogers might have had the edge over Jaques at the end of last summer having topped the Pura Cup run tally with 1202 at 70.70. However, he made 9 and 17 in Western Australia’s opening game this season and was then struck down with appendicitis.Another hamstring injury ruled Watson out of the race, while Hodge was in poor form in the ODI series in India. Hodge tried opening in Victoria’s Pura Cup match last week – he made 2 and 0 – and although he managed 162 on Saturday for his Melbourne club side Jaques already had the Test position sewn up.After a strong Australia A tour of Pakistan, Jaques opened his Pura Cup season with 167 for New South Wales in the same match in which Rogers failed. “I don’t think there is any pressure on him now,” Ponting said.”The pressure was on him in the first couple of games of the season, and now that he has been picked he can relax into things and hopefully get some runs in the first couple of Tests. He deserves his chance and he’s a guy that loves batting and usually when he gets in he makes big scores, so hopefully he can do that for Australia.”

Shoaib Akhtar has been included in the Asian one-day team for the Afro-Asia Cup in the first week of June. Shoaib was part of the 14-man squad, to be led by Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lankan captain, that includes Sachin Tendulkar, Sanath Jayasuriya and Mohammad Yousuf.Shoaib, who has played only a handful of one-dayers and a solitary day of Test cricket in the past year, missed Pakistan’s brief World Cup campaign and will not be travelling for the forthcoming ODI series against Sri Lanka in Abu Dhabi, starting May 18.”I’m fit, I never said I was unfit,” he had told Cricinfo ten days earlier. “I had a knee injury before the World Cup but I just need a little bit more time to get fitter and get myself sorted out properly once and for all.”Shoaib will be partnered by Mohammad Asif, Lasith Malinga and Chaminda Vaas in the pace-bowling department. Like Shoaib, Asif also missed the World Cup, owing to an elbow injury, but returned to the Pakistan side as the vice-captain. Vaas, who wasn’t part of the Sri Lanka squad for the Abu Dhabi series against Pakistan, since he had been released to play county cricket in England, was chosen for this tournament.Mohammad Rafique and Harbhajan Singh will share the spin duties. Sourav Ganguly and Chamara Silva, who had enjoyed a memorable World Cup, were the notable omissions from the squad.Syed Ashraful Huq, the CEO of the Asian Cricket Council while announcing the squad, said that Rahul Dravid had opted out citing a packed upcoming season and that Younis Khan and Muttiah Muralitharan had county commitments.The team was chosen by a selection panel comprising SM Farooque (Bangladesh), Chetan Chauhan (India), Mohsin Khan (Pakistan) and Lalith Kaluperuma (Sri Lanka). Chauhan had said that former India captain Sourav Ganguly’s name was considered but, “finally we decided to go with youngsters.”The selectors also chose a team for the Twenty20 international on June 5 in Bangalore. Shoaib Malik was appointed captain in a team dominated by Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. Tillakaratne Dilshan, Farveez Maharoof and Munaf Patel were the only players from Sri Lanka and India.The tournament will kick off with the Twenty20 international and will be followed by three ODIs, on June 6 and 9 (Chennai), and 10 (Bangalore). This will be the second edition of the tournament – it was first held in 2005 in South Africa. The series was drawn 1-1 with one game being abandoned owing to rain.The total prize money for the tournament is $100,000, with the winners of each match getting $25,000. The Man of the Match would get $5000 while the Man of the Series stands to get $15,000.Roger Binny, the former India allrounder has been named coach of the Asian team.Asia ODI team1 Sanath Jayasuriya, 2 Virender Sehwag, 3 Upul Tharanga, 4 Mahela Jayawardene (capt), 5 Sachin Tendulkar, 6 Mohammad Yousuf, 7 Yuvraj Singh, 8 Mahendra Singh Dhoni (wk), 9 Harbhajan Singh, 10 Chaminda Vaas, 11 Shoaib Akhtar, 12 Lasith Malinga, 13 Mohammad Rafique, 14 Mohammad AsifAsia Twenty20 team1 Tamim Iqbal, 2 Imran Nazir, 3 Mohammad Ashraful, 4 Shoaib Malik (capt), 5 Tillakaratne Dilshan, 6 Shahid Afridi, 7 Kamran Akmal (wk), 8 Farveez Maharoof, 9 Abdur Razzak, 10 Mashrafe Mortaza, 11 Munaf Patel

Jon Lewis will have an operation on his left ankle to remove some troublesome bits of bone. Lewis, the England seamer and Gloucestershire captain, will undergo the surgery next Thursday.Gloucestershire expect him to be out of the game for two to three months. It’s obviously not great timing for the county season, but the club’s physiotherapist, Steve Griffin, explained that this is the best course of action for the long-term.”Hopefully it will resolve the issues that have been causing him problems over the winter months. The rehabilitation process following the surgery is very important and we will not be rushing Jon back until he is completely ready. “