Australian Captain, Steve Waugh, commented: “The squad selected is as expected with no real surprises. I feel it is a well balanced squad with plenty of experience and this is shown by the number of test caps already achieved. On paper, this looks like a very competitive squad, but the only real surprise is that the selectors have not chosen a young batsman.”
In the match at the Motibaug Cricket Ground in Baroda, both Baroda andSaurashtra ran up tall scores and the match meandered into a tamedraw. Put in to bat, Baroda amassed 441 thanks to a painstakingcentury by R Solanki (145). Coming in at the fall of the third wicketwith the score on 73, Solanki was the backbone of the innings. He wasthe eighth batsman to be dismissed after helping the score to 356.During a 414-minute stay at the crease, Solanki faced 322 balls andhit 15 boundaries and a six. He was ably supported by opener R Salvi(61) with whom he added 58 runs for the fourth wicket. The score wasthen helped along by some lusty hitting by H Ali (78). In reply,Saurashtra played out the rest of the match by scoring 336. Theinnings was held together by two good knocks by opener K Vaghele (82)and H Jadav (81). The wickets were shared by Hitshu Bachani (5 for 60)and Pathan Junior (4 for 71).
Hampshire’s go-ahead Cricket Development Office has been chosen to launch a new ECB initiative to attract youngsters to take up the game.Ten junior schools from the various parts of the county will be coming to the Hampshire Rose Bowl on Monday morning (May 14) for the national launch of a new eight-a-side version of the game.It’s entitled Inter-Cricket and plans to bridge the gap between Kwik Cricket and the traditional hard-ball game.A fast moving game – ideal for a school playground but which can also be staged indoors – Inter-Cricket is played with a seamed rubberised ball.Team members bat and bowl, with runs scored when the ball is hit out of the’inner zone’.The batting side forfeits three runs each time a wicket is lost.”Many schools throughout the country cannot play hard-ball outdoor cricket due to lack of facilities and shortage of equipment,” explained Hampshire’s CDO, Mark Garaway.”But this new version of the game, which mirrors the National League, will introduce cricket to a far wider audience.”The school children will wear coloured clothing, bowl with a white ball, enjoy free hits and generally play to National rules.The event, which runs from 10 o’clock until 4pm, is being sponsored by Norwich Union, whose local Healthcare office is at Eastleigh.Further information can be obtained from Mark Garaway at 023 8046 5816 or 0468 552618.
As Darren Sammy’s pre-final press conference ended, a few journalists and camerapersons standing at the back of the Premadasa media room actually clapped. If you were looking for evidence of just what West Indies, even a decade-and-a-half after their decline, mean to cricket and its fans, here it was. No one clapped after Mahela Jayawardene had finished speaking to the media; not even the local media men. While there is no doubt Jayawardene and his men will have a packed Premadasa cheering for them tomorrow, there is also no doubting who most neutral fans want to win.West Indies are the game’s original, and only, gladiators. In their prime, their bowlers put the fear of death in opposition batsmen’s minds, their batsmen fearlessly slaughtered opposition bowlers, and their team ruled the cricket world with sheer force. Everywhere, fans loved the raw skill and passion which West Indies brought to cricket. The skill and passion have dimmed over the years, but fans still keep waiting for some performances, or a performance, that will remind them that once, this was a side which forced you to sit down and watch it do its stuff.In these difficult times, West Indies have invested their faith in a man who has divided opinion in a way a modern captain scarcely has. Whether he should be there in the side or not is a debate which will probably continue as long as he is captain, but Sammy is the man who will go down in history as the one who led West Indies to their first World Cup final – albeit in the Twenty20 form – since 1983. Yes, it has taken just two outright wins, over Australia and England in the Super Eights, to make the final, but West Indies won’t mind that.Sammy has been nearly invisible with bat and ball through the tournament while Chris Gayle has soaked in most of the attention. He has had to face difficult questions over Gayle’s absence from the squad and his subsequent return. It was heartwarming to see Sammy jump around in the dugout with delight after every Gayle six in the semi-final. The captain has no pretensions to being a world-class player but has always maintained he’s there to bring the squad together, to involve everyone, and make it easy for his players to perform without inhibition. Even when he was asked about what the final meant for him as a leader, as someone who had worked for a united squad, he only spoke about the Caribbean people.”For me, it is going to be a memorable occasion,” Sammy said. “I am more focussed on the team and the Caribbean people. I have just been playing cricket for a few years but the fans have been supporting for a number of years. To me it is all about them. They are who come and watch us play, wake early in the morning and stay up late at night.”What if West Indies went a step further, what if they beat Sri Lanka tomorrow? “It would be massive,” Sammy said. “It’s been over a decade and the fans are craving for bigger success. That is the goal we left the Caribbean with. We have been saying it in the dressing room, it is one team, one people, one mission. We are just one step away from the World Twenty20. When we do well people in the Caribbean are very happy, work stops for a few hours back home. It would mean everything to us as players, as coaching staff. It would give us a big boost.”Sammy said the last man who won a World Cup for West Indies, Clive Lloyd, had a message for the side ahead of the final. “I got an email from Mr. Lloyd saying we are very proud in the Caribbean of what the team is doing, people are very happy and just go out and win it. ‘Success comes before work only in the dictionary. Continue to work hard so that you can reap success tomorrow,’ he said. It means a lot to everybody. That in itself will be the biggest motivation for us.”Lloyd and the people of the Caribbean won’t be the only ones rooting for West Indies tomorrow. There is a world title to be won, and probably the entire cricketing world, barring the Sri Lankans, will be behind Sammy and his men.
From Dion Nash’s perspective, Auckland’s Shell Trophy match against Central Districts which ended at Fitzherbert Park today was in every way a satisfactory outing – though he might have had a sneaking sense of unease about a four-day match concluded within two days.He made a winning start as Auckland’s captain, a role he has taken from Blair Pocock, leading his team to a win by eight wickets in six sessions and to a more prominent position on the Trophy table.From a personal point of view he scored 64 in Auckland’s first innings – the second-highest individual score of the match and a component in a partnership which gave Auckland it’s dominant position. And, most importantly, most happily from his own viewpoint, he bowled 11 overs of medium pace – including seven brisk and effective overs today, to take 3-30 and to announce the end of his long, wearisome rehabilitation from a serious back injury.No-one made a more comprensive contribution towards determining the outcome of the match than Nash – though it could be argued the Central batsman who were out in two innings for 132 and 108 had a substantial say in matters.Nash influenced the match from a positive and pro-active point of view while Central – the newly crowned Shell Cup champions, tasted bitter defeat only five days after receiving their one-day crown.This was match which proceeded at the pace of a television highlights package – a smattering of boundaries and a collection of false shots and wicketfalls. There were 15 wickets on the first day yesterday – Central were already out for 132 in their first innings and Auckland were 129/5 in reply – and there were 17 more today – 32 wickets and 481 runs – as the match sped along at a lunatic pace.Auckland finally reached 223 in their first innings for a lead of 91 and Central, all out for 108 in their second turn at bat, left them only 18 runs to get for an outright win. Still, in keeping with the nature of the match which was cricket directed by Quentin Tarantino – all violence and profanity – they managed to lose two wickets in six overs before that total was reached.It would be comforting to lay the blame for the carnage on the Fitzherbert Park pitch: an unremarkable though noticeably greenish strip of land adjacent to another on which a multitude of runs had been scored in a Hawke Cup match only days ago.It would also be to easy to conclude that the pitch alone was responsible for the consecutive destruction of the top order in four innings.In Central’s first innings, they had been 33/4 and had recovered to 93/5 before they were all out for 132. Auckland had been 21/3, 38/4 and 70/5 in their first innings before Nash and Mills led them to a first innings lead. They were 179/6 when Nash was out for 64 after putting on 105 in his second century partnership with Mills this Trophy season. They were 195/8 and in a strong position when Mills was out for the match’s highest score of 67.Central were then 27/3 and 45/5, finally 85/8 in their second innings before they were all out meekly for 108 in 50 overs and 19 minutes more than three hours. Those eight wickets had fallen before Auckland had an obligation to bat again.Of the Central batsmen, Craig Spearman made 37 then threw his wicket away with the kind of loose shot outside off stump – built of something between frustration and disinterest – which has characterised his career. Two batsmen were run out, Joseph Hill for 0 and Mark Douglas, in one of a declining number of matches in this last year of his first-class career, without facing a ball. It would have been a brave man who approached Douglas at that moment and said ‘I hate it when that happens’.Nash took 3-16 from seven overs in which he approached full pace. His victimes were Ben Smith, bowlled for 17, and Ewen Thompson and Gareth West who were out within two balls of each other in Nash’s fifth over.Chris Drum took 3-45 and Tama Canning 3-10 from nine overs.But those bowling performances didn’t approach the effort in the morning of the young Nelson leg spinner Tim Anderson who took the five Auckland wickets that fell before lunch and finished with 6-37 from 15.3 overs.Anderson had been a member of the Central squad as the season approached but suffered a stress fracture at a pre-season training camp and could not return till yesterday. This match was as much a triumph for him in his victory over injury as it was for Nash for the same reason.But there is some incomprehensible logic in the fact medium pacers dominated the first day of the match and the last two sessions and a leg spinner dominated the morning session on the second day. Because quicks took 12 wickets yesterday and 10 today but for a single session spin held sway.And that also says something about the alleged difficulty of the pitch which was bipartisan enough, or diabolical enough, to favour quick bowling for most of the match and spin for a single session.There was some irregular bounce, certainly, and a ball or two reared sharply from a length. There must also have been significant lateral movement because 16 batsmen nicked themselves out and fell to catches behind the wicket.At last, and in that spirit, spare a thought for Auckland opener John Aiken who had the worst experience of the Groundhog Day phenomenon Trophy cricket has recently seen.Brent Hefford opened the bowling for Central in Auckland’s first innings sending down a wide first ball which was wide enough to endanger the safety of third slip. But his second ball was a screamer that opened up Aiken, caught an edge and flew to gully.Today in Auckland’s second innings, Hefford opened the bowling and sent down a wide first ball which was wide enough to endanger the safety of third slip. But his second balls a screamer that opened up Aiken, caught an edge and flew to first slip. The experience of deja vu was not a welcome one for Aiken who finished with a technical golden pair.For the record, Hefford finished with 4-57 in Auckland’s first innings, sharing the wickets with Anderson.Central’s next match is now against Northern Districts in Napier, transferred from Masterton where the pitch was held to be of insufficient quality.
Subrata Roy, the chairman of Sahara India, has criticised the BCCI over its different standards in dealing with IPL franchises and said he felt “betrayed” by the board’s decision to terminate the IPL franchise Pune Warriors – owned by Roy – for failing to pay their bank guarantee for the 2014 season. He cited the case of Gurunath Meiyappan and the Chennai Super Kings franchise, who were cleared of any involvement in corrupt activities, though Gurunath was charged by the Mumbai Police with allegations of betting.”If the chief of any institution can create and allow such bad example like that of Gurunath, how can a body function independently? Had Gurunath been an owner or principal of some other team, what would have happened to that team?” Roy told the . “After this example, BCCI has lost the right to take action against anyone. Their whims and fancies are more important to them than anything else.”Sahara had threatened to pull out of the IPL last year, barely an hour before the auction. The main point of contention has been the franchise fee, which was negotiated for 18 matches per team in the league stage. However the minimum number of matches was reduced to 16, after which Sahara sought to resolve the matter through arbitration. Even though the BCCI and Sahara agreed to the arbitration, no further steps were taken after the parties failed to agree over who would oversee the abitration.In March this year, Sahara was required to furnish a bank guarantee of Rs 170.2 crore for IPL 2014. The franchise had defaulted on 70% of the payment last season and had its bank guarantee encashed by the BCCI in May. Subsequently, Sahara announced its decision to pull out of the IPL, detailing its concerns against the board, and also stated its intentions to withdraw sponsorship of the national cricket team.”They have false egos and high-handedness and the Board will realise how big a financial loss it is suffering after Sahara pulls out of team sponsorship”, Roy said. “I don’t think any corporate would be interested to pay so much money to cricket at a time when there is so much of ego in the cricket bosses.”The decision to oust Pune Warriors from the IPL was taken at the BCCI working committee meeting in Chennai on October 26, but Roy felt such drastic measures were unnecessary. “I felt betrayed,” he said. “Had they sat across the table, we would have continued with the Indian team sponsorship.”
Umar Amin, the Pakistan A captain, has something useful to share with the Pakistan senior side ahead of the Tests against South Africa: how to get Graeme Smith out. It took Pakistan A just 15 deliveries to remove the opposition captain, who has been out of the game for five months and will have only one more innings before the series begins. Smith was also the only South African batsmen not to profit from time in the middle on the opening day of the three-day tour match in Sharjah.He was dropped at first slip off Ehsan Adil in the fifth over before being trapped lbw in the seventh by the same bowler. “We planned something against him and that worked out pretty well today,” Amin said. But he would not go any further. “We just wanted to set him up with a plan and I cannot really give you the plan right here.”Amin was more than willing to divulge the secret to Misbah-ul-Haq and Co. “Of course, why not? I’m a part of the senior team as well so I’ll definitely give it to them,” Amin said.Because Smith’s strength is on the leg side, many bowlers attack him just outside the off stump or try to square him up and he may have wanted more time in the middle to remind himself of that. Although Smith spent little more than 30 minutes at the crease, he held a long net session with coach Russell Domingo in the afternoon. Hashim Amla, who scored a fluent fifty before retiring, said with an attitude such as Smith’s, there is no reason to be concerned about the South Africa captain’s readiness come the first Test next Monday.”Graeme will be fine. He is the type of guy,” Amla said, before clarifying he meant that as a tongue-in-cheek comment. “He is an amazing opening batsmen and takes his practice very seriously. And there is still a second innings too.”Amla said the rest of the line-up was so satisfied with the outing they had, they would be ready to play the Test tomorrow. “I think the team is good to go, even if we started the Test match tomorrow,” Amla said. “Fortunately, everybody got a bat and got some value out of it.”He explained that because many of them had had match practice in the last few months, they used today as a way to adjust to the temperatures and the pace of the pitch. He found the morning the hottest time to bat, but also the easiest, because the spinners had not been able to find any assistance by then. “It was a good batting deck and the seamers were quite nice to face early on,” Amla said. “But I think it started turning towards the end of the day and it might have got a little trickier.”Although Usman Qadir, in particular, found generous turn, South Africa’s batsmen played him with ease and took runs off all the slower bowlers to show their ability in that department ahead of a Test series that is expected to be headlined by spin.Amin was not too concerned with the way his young attack was taken on, instead seeing it as a learning curve for them, and not a sign that Saeed Ajmal, Abdur Rehman and Zulfiqur Babar will suffer the same fate. “It wasn’t as disappointing because the lack of experience showed,” Amin said. “One of the spinners, Usman, is only 20. With the passage of time, I think he’ll learn, especially after bowling against one of the best sides in the world.”The same goes for Amin as a leader, especially as he has been touted as a future Pakistan captain. “I enjoyed it, being my first outing with a senior team as a captain,” Amin said. “It was a very good experience, especially captaining against some of the top players and trying to set fields according to their weaknesses and giving my bowlers some plans against them.”Not much went Pakistan A’s way but the wickets of Jacques Kallis and AB de Villiers would have buoyed them, especially after Amla and Alviro Petersen retired after making fifties and it appeared one-way traffic. Amin hoped they can apply themselves with more aggression with ball in hand tomorrow.”It’s definitely our plan to bat for the whole day and play with their confidence a bit and try to shake their confidence,” Amin said. “This is our younger side so, if we bat all day, it will give them something to think about.”
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsPakistan Under-23s pulled off a thrilling one-wicket win against Sri Lanka Under-23s to set up a title clash against India on Sunday in the ACC Emerging Teams Cup in Singapore.Set a target of 231 for victory, Pakistan had a bad start, losing Babar Azam off the first ball of the innings. The teams were evenly matched for most part of the chase as Sri Lanka struck with quick wickets right after the Pakistan batsmen had managed to get a partnership going. A fifth-wicket stand between Usman Salahuddin and Mohammad Nawaz, worth 57 runs, steadied the chase, after they were 61 for 4 in the 16th over, but Sri Lanka fought back with three quick wickets, dismissing Nawaz, Salahuddin and Raza Hassan.The chase came to rest on Hammad Azam, who batted well with the lower order. He took his time settling down when Bilawal Bhatti hit a quickfire 21-ball 25, but assumed charge of the innings once Bhatti and Usman Qadir were out with the score at 200 for 9. With Pakistan needing 30 off 48 balls, Azam began taking most of the strike and hit regular boundaries to keep the side in with a chance.With 13 required off the last two overs, Azam finished the match in the 49th over, scoring the winning runs with a six over fine leg. He finished on unbeaten on 66 off 69 balls with two fours and three sixes.Earlier, legspinner Usman Qadir’s five-wicket haul helped rein in Sri Lanka after the openers had given them a strong start. Udara Jayasundera and Shehan Jayasuriya added 81 in 14.4 overs, their third fifty-plus opening stand in the tournament, to give Sri Lanka a good start after they chose to bat. Qadir had success soon after being introduced in the 13th over, taking a simple return catch off Jayasuriya. He dried up the runs with some tight bowling and dismissed Kithuruwan Vithanage and Niroshan Dickwell to finish his first spell with figures of 7-2-19-3.Jayasundera’s fifty and a 48-run stand with Rumesh Buddika for the fifth wicket, helped steady the Sri Lankan innings. Once the pair was out, the lower order, led by Charith Jayampathi scored quick runs to take the side to 230 for 7.
Ricky Ponting sees potential in the current Australia team, despite their disappointing Ashes against England. Ponting believes that there have been spots of brightness from time to time, but admitted that England were the dominant side.”I have kept in touch with it [the Ashes] and putting my biased goggles on for a minute, I think the boys have probably played a little bit better than the scoreline suggests as they have been in with a chance of winning three Tests,” Ponting, who is on duty with the Antigua Hawksbills in the Caribbean Premier League, said. “But the scoreline reads 3-0 and that is the difference sometimes between the really good and experienced teams, and the ones on their way up… the know-how to actually get across the line and to win games.”England have got a really good team, an experienced team and their bowling group has been together for pretty much the last six or seven years now.”Australia have much to learn still, but they are headed in the right direction, he said. “There are some challenges there for Australia cricket but with Darren Lehmann’s appointment as coach and some of the younger guys they have got around there I think there is enough talent but they are just going to have to learn and at the moment they are learning the hard way.”Ponting will be in the commentary box this Australian summer, covering the Big Bash League, but he also sees himself staying within the game in a more hands-on approach. “There is no doubt I will stay in the game somewhere. There will be some coaching offers that will come my way and I am really interested in coaching. I’m really interested in helping out younger players,” he said. He was confident that he had a lot left to offer the breeding grounds of Australian cricket.”The state Australian cricket is at, at the moment, my services could be used in some way. We will just wait and see, but the one thing I do not want to do is to travel around the world for six or eight months a year.”
Steven Smith gave Australia an injury concern ahead of the Old Trafford Test, failing to train on Tuesday due to a sore back. Smith was Australia’s only centurion from the tour match in Sussex, where he finished unbeaten on 102 in the first innings, and his efforts there meant he was unlikely to be in any real danger of losing his place for the third Investec Test in Manchester.However, he will now have only one training session, on Wednesday, to prove his fitness ahead of the must-win Test, which begins on Thursday. Although Australia were confident that Smith would be fit, the unpredictable nature of back problems meant that it was too early to make a decision on his fitness.”I think he’s doing okay,” opening batsman Chris Rogers said. “He might have tweaked it a little bit yesterday but talking to him he said he’s improved a bit so hopefully he’ll be right to train tomorrow and good to go on the first day. I think it’s just a bit restrictive, so hopefully it’s not a big issue.”The uncertainty around Smith added to the issues the selectors will face in the lead-up to the third Test, although if he were to miss out, it would give them an easy decision on how to squeeze David Warner back into the side. On Monday, Warner rejoined the squad for the first time since the Ashes began, after he was sent to Zimbabwe and South Africa to gain some match practice with Australia A.His 193 against South Africa A in Pretoria in his final match of that tour built the pressure on the rest of the batsmen, although the coach Darren Lehmann said after the Sussex game that Warner was no certainty to be part of the XI in Manchester. Warner batted in the Old Trafford nets on Tuesday and would be the natural replacement if Smith were to miss out.However, if Smith is fit to play and the selectors want the newly in-form Warner to slot in to the middle order, Phillip Hughes could be the man to miss out after scoring only two runs from his past three Test innings. Warner would be likely to bat in the middle order if recalled for his first Test of the tour, and Rogers said he was the kind of batsman who could make all the difference if things went his way.”Davey brings a lot of energy to the group always,” Rogers said. “He’s just one of those guys. He goes a hundred miles an hour. It’s fantastic to see him get runs. He’s such a destructive player that if he bats for a while he could put some real pressure on England. If he plays hopefully he can do well and have one of those games out and help us win this next Test.”He’s one of those ones opposition know that they have to get out quickly. If he bats for a while he can take the game away like Gilchrist used to do. Hopefully he can do that if he does play.”