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Live updates of the seventh round of the Ranji Trophy

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Dec-2013

Maharashtra captain Rohit Motwani won another toss and his bowlers, yet again, exploited the conditions perfectly, and bowled Bengal out in 41.4 overs

The Report by Karthik Krishnaswamy in Indore18-Jan-2014
ScorecardAfter taking seven wickets, Samad Fallah is just two short of 200 wickets in first-class cricket•Dainik Dabang DuniaTwice before this season, Maharashtra had won the toss, sent their opponents out to bat on greentops, and rolled them over on the first day. On both those occasions – against Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh – their batsmen had backed up their bowlers’ efforts by coming out and scoring 400-plus totals.On the morning of Maharashtra’s first Ranji Trophy semi-final in 17 years, the pitch at the Holkar Stadium wore an even coat of green. Rohit Motwani, their captain, won another toss. His bowlers, yet again, exploited the conditions perfectly, and bowled Bengal out in 41.4 overs. The batsmen came out and made a still lively surface and an acclaimed bowling attack look more or less manageable. Maharashtra ended the day 50 runs ahead with six wickets in hand.On the eve of the match, his 50th in first-class cricket, Samad Fallah had reminded mediapersons that he was closing in on 200 wickets. When Saturday dawned, the left-arm seamer needed nine more to get there. When he bowled Shib Paul, Bengal’s No. 11, his tally had risen to 198.It wasn’t the best day for a Bengal batsman to make his debut. Koushik Ghosh, the left-handed opener, realised this when he pushed forward at Fallah in the third over of the morning, to a ball pitched on off stump. The line forced Ghosh to play, and the away-swing produced a healthy tickle to first slip despite the fact that his bat had remained close to his body and his head more or less over the top of the ball.Fallah changed his angle of approach frequently over the remainder of his spell, but never lost his direction. From left-arm round, wide of the crease, he swung one into the right-handed Abhimanyu Easwaran to trap him lbw. This was the last ball of his seventh over. First ball of his eighth, Fallah went over the wicket to the left-handed Sudip Chatterjee, and speared one into the blockhole for another lbw.The last five balls of that over, all to Wriddhiman Saha, went as follows: an imploring shout for lbw and the hat-trick (close, but not given); another lbw appeal (close again); a half-steer, half-edge to third man for four; one more lbw appeal (just as loud, perhaps not as close); and an inside-edge that dropped inches in front of short leg.Fallah bowled two more overs in that spell. At the other end, Anupam Sanklecha and Domnic Joseph were complementing him brilliantly. They didn’t attack the stumps quite as much, sticking instead to a fifth-stump line, and tightened the screws on Bengal’s batsmen. They took a wicket each, as did Harshad Khadiwale, who tempted Saha to flash at his gentle medium-pace and nick to wicketkeeper Motwani. In Khadiwale’s previous over, Arindam Das had attempted the same shot, with almost the same result; Sangram Atitkar had dropped him at first slip.Fallah cleaned up the rest. Extra bounce consumed Laxmi Shukla, while extravagant inswing did for Arindam – who had played an innings that contained as many plays-and-misses as elegant clips and drives. Sourav Sarkar and Paul, Nos. 9 and 11, slogged themselves out off successive deliveries, leaving Fallah on a hat-trick once more.When Paul went, bowled heaving across the line, Ashok Dinda at the other end aimed a similar heave at nothing in particular. He had been left not out on 0 off 1 ball. Dinda channeled that frustration into his bowling, leaping higher than ever into his delivery stride, and worked up pace of a sort that none of Maharashtra’s bowlers – barring Sanklecha, on occasion – had come close to producing.Dinda’s radar, however, wasn’t quite right. His first ball, angled into Khadiwale’s pads, was worked away for two. Four of the next five balls were similarly drawn to the batsmen’s pads. Khadiwale took a single, Chirag Khurana scored a boundary and a single, Khadiwale hit another four.That over set the tone for an opening partnership of 78. Dinda bowled too straight, his new-ball partner Sarkar bowled either too full or too short; Khurana, moving his feet decisively, drove or cut him repeatedly through the off side.In the first over after tea, Dinda broke the partnership with another ball angled down leg, Khurana getting a tickle to the wicketkeeper. An inducker from Shukla in the next over bowled Khadiwale. Bengal sniffed a chance, and filled the air with chatter. It grew in volume when Shukla curved one into the left-handed Vijay Zol to trap him on the shuffle.It didn’t let up for the rest of the afternoon, but it didn’t affect Kedar Jadhav and Ankit Bawne. Jadhav repeatedly walked out of his crease to the seamers, and struck eight crisply- timed fours – mostly whipped off his legs or driven through cover on one knee – before popping a return catch to Dinda.Bawne was watchful outside off stump but drove assuredly whenever the ball was pitched up, and had reached 37 at stumps. With him was Motwani, batting on 8. He hadn’t yet opened his account when Ghosh dropped him at gully off Dinda. It was a forgettable end to a forgettable first day for Bengal.

Fast bowler Jackson Bird has been cleared to join Australia on their Test tour of South Africa after he was earlier in doubt due to a back injury

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Jan-2014Fast bowler Jackson Bird has been cleared to join Australia on their Test tour of South Africa after he was earlier in doubt due to a back injury.Bird and Shaun Marsh were the two players held back from flying to South Africa with the rest of the squad due to fitness issues, and it was widely expected that Bird would join the group, while Marsh remains in doubt due to his calf problem.Bird jarred his back while fielding for the Melbourne Stars in the BBL and missed a Futures League match in an effort to recover and join the squad in South Africa.Bird and the allrounder Moises Henriques, who played the first Twenty20 against England, will fly out on Friday to join the rest of the touring party ahead of next week’s tour game in Potchefstroom.Although it is unlikely that Bird will be able to force his way into the side for the first Test in Centurion, he may add to his three Test caps if injury strikes any of Australia’s first-choice fast men on the tour.

A Peter Forrest century and impressive spells from James Hopes and Michael Neser put Queensland on the path towards first-innings points on the second day in Brisbane

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Mar-2014
Scorecard
A Peter Forrest century and impressive spells from James Hopes and Michael Neser put Queensland on the path towards first-innings points on the second day in Brisbane. After the Bulls were dismissed for 391, the Warriors stumbled to be 3 for 13 and although they recovered somewhat, by stumps they were still 242 runs adrift with Ashton Agar on 27, Jason Behrendorff on 19 and the total on 7 for 149.Forrest made 133 and had good support from Neser (40) in the lower order as Queensland built on their strong first-day effort. Behrendorff finished with 5 for 105 and Nathan Rimmington picked up three wickets but the early breakthroughs in Western Australia’s innings meant there was no doubt which team was in control.Hopes was on a hat-trick in the fourth over of the innings when he had Cameron Bancroft caught and Marcus Harris lbw, both for ducks, and although Adam Voges (34) and Ashton Turner (41) steadied, they were unable to build on their starts. Hopes and Neser each ended the day with three wickets.

If Lancashire do not summon a reinforcement for Ashwell Prince there are already signs at Trent Bridge that their batting could be exposed in Division One

George Dobell07-Apr-2014
ScorecardAshwell Price could carry an excessive burden unless Lancashire summon reinforcements•PA PhotosOnly 34 overs were possible on the second day of this game, but there was enough play to suggest that Lancashire’s batting could be a major issue for them this season.Lancashire were reduced to 77 for 6 by the time rain intervened, meaning they still require 46 more runs to avoid the follow-on. While conditions remain helpful for seam bowlers, this is something close to a second string attack for Nottinghamshire. Had Andre Adams, who has a calf injury, or Peter Siddle, who hopes to arrive on Tuesday having resolved his visa issues, been available, things could have been much worse for Lancashire.This is not a new problem for them. In 2012, the year they were relegated in the County Championship, it was their batting that let them down. They passed 400 only twice in the season and only one batsman – Ashwell Prince – scored more than 700 runs. Prince was also the only man in the side to score a century at home.So their failure to strengthen is a surprise. While the presence of Simon Katich helped them gain promotion last year – both he and Prince passed 1,000 Championship runs – there was little sign of improvement from the regular players, with no-one else reaching 750. With Katich retired, the burden on Prince who is now 36, appears excessive.Help may be at hand. The club, keen to provide opportunities for their young batsmen, have yet to sign an overseas player and could call for reinforcements. Faf du Plessis, who made such a positive impression upon the club in his previous stint as a Kolpak registration in 2008-09, is one obvious candidate and would now be able to gain a visa as an overseas player.But such measures tend to mask problems rather than solve them and Lancashire are, admirably, taking a longer-term view. They aim to provide room in the side for the likes of 23-year-old Luis Reece to develop into a high-quality player who could serve club and perhaps country for several years.But, Reece apart, the lack of batsmen who have developed through the club’s system is an obvious weakness and does threaten their Division One survival prospects. Karl Brown and Steven Croft, two locally developed players who were not selected for this match, do not have the first-class averages (26.32 and 31.29 respectively) to suggest they are the answer to Lancashire’s problems.Lancashire never looked likely to prosper in their first innings here. After Paul Horton, attempting to play across a full ball, was the only victim of a fine first spell from Luke Fletcher, Reece, with feet of cement, fenced at one he could have left off the decidedly slippery Harry Gurney. Andrea Agathangelou lost his off stump having left one that nipped back, before Prince was drawn into poking at one he could have left to present Jake Ball with his maiden Championship wicket. Ball, a rangy seamer, followed up with the delivery of the day, nipping back into the left-hander Luke Procter, to win a leg before decision. By the time Alex Davies’ loose drive was beaten by another than nipped back, Lancashire were in something approaching disarray.There is a little mitigation. Such early-season pitches magnify batting flaws and, had Glen Chapple and Kyle Hogg been available for Lancashire, it is likely that Nottinghamshire might have struggled to pass 200.But take James Anderson out of this Lancashire side – and England surely will – and the county remains as overly-reliant on Chapple as it has for much of the last decade. And that, in turn, might have consequences for the coaching aspirations of Peter Moores. For while Lancashire’s long-term ambitions are clearly to be applauded, it would be an odd situation whereby the ECB employed their new coach from a team struggling towards the bottom of the Championship and seemingly unable to mend a long-existing weakness.

Salman Butt, the banned former Pakistan captain, is hopeful PCB chairman Najam Sethi will “do for other players” what he is doing for Mohammad Amir, who is also serving a ban for spot-fixing

Umar Farooq12-Apr-2014Salman Butt, the banned former Pakistan captain, is hopeful PCB chairman Najam Sethi will “do for other players” what he is doing for Mohammad Amir, who is also serving a ban for spot-fixing.Sethi had stated on several occasions previously that he is looking into getting the terms of Amir’s five-year ban reduced by the ICC, so that he can revive his international career at the earliest. The ICC is set to implement an amended anti-corruption code from June, which might facilitate a quicker return to cricket for players serving long-term bans.”I wish what he [Sethi] is doing for Amir, he does for other players too,” Butt said on Saturday. “Pakistan needs Amir, and the other players.”In September last year, the PCB had sought advice from the Queen’s Counsel in England, with regards to getting Amir’s ban reduced. While under the old corruption code there is no provision for the ICC to reduce a ban, it is understood that the PCB was then looking to ensure Amir could at least use its training facilities ahead of schedule so he can be ready to make a comeback as soon his ban ends.Butt said he had met the PCB several times to see what it could do for him in terms of rehabilitation, but was yet to receive any positive response. “I have been to the cricket board at least 10-15 times, and have met Colonel Azam of anti-corruption, and have asked him to start my rehabilitation lectures. It has to be organised by the PCB.”I am available 24-7. I come to the ground every day, and as long as I am fit I am ready to play. Whatever things ICC judges have told me about rehabilitation, it’s completed from my end. Whatever now PCB says I am ready.”Butt said he just wanted to be treated the same way as Amir. “It’s good that the chairman is making efforts to revive the international career of Mohammad Amir, but he should also do it for others. When the ban is up, everyone should get an equal opportunity. I am not demanding anything extra.”In February 2011, Amir, 21, was one of the three banned by the ICC, along with Butt (29) and Mohammad Asif (31), after being found guilty of spot-fixing during Pakistan’s Lord’s Test against England in August 2010. Amir was the only one to plead guilty to the charges in the trial that followed at London’s Southwark Crown Court.

Solid second innings batting by Yorkshire, led by Joe Root and Adam Lyth, has put the visitors in a very strong position at Lord’s

George Dobell at Lord's28-Apr-2014
ScorecardJoe Root showed the value of playing yourself in and wearing bowlers down•Getty ImagesLike perms, mullets and onesies, some fashions are best forgotten.So it may well prove with the current fashion to play ‘positive’ cricket. Where once county batsmen were brought up to graft their way through tough sessions of play, many of the current generation react to tricky conditions by attempting to blast their way to success. Even at the end of the Ashes series, with England thrashed inside three days, the mantra from inside the camp was that they had to find a way to attack the Australian bowlers and play positive cricket.The irony of England’s approach was that it played into Australia’s hands. While England’s strength, with a couple of exceptions, was to play patient, attritional cricket, they were lured into altering their game-plan partially by the drip feeding of propaganda into the media by the likes of Shane Warne. Instead of trying to frustrate Australia by blocking for session upon session, they sought to counter-attack and tended to neither score quickly or survive for long. When you are beaten in two-and-a-half days, strike-rate is largely irrelevant.In the longer forms of the game, defence can remain the best form of attack. A batsman who has the discipline and technique to leave, defend and wait can survive to damage their opposition not just in the next four overs, but the next four sessions. The old values of patience and denial may be unfashionable in the age of T20 and broadcasters demanding action, but they remain as valuable now as ever.There was a fine example of the virtues of attritional cricket on the second day of this game. While Middlesex, unable to summon the patience to fight for their runs, lost their last eight wickets for 66 runs, Yorkshire were prepared to grind out their total and, by the close of play, had established what may well prove to be a match-defining advantage.They had a little fortune. For a large part of their second innings, the clouds dispersed and the sun shone at Lord’s. Local wisdom suggests, despite scientific evidence to the contrary, that the ball misbehaves far less often when the sun shines.Generally, though, Yorkshire made their own fortune. By bowling tremendously well in the morning session – Ryan Sidebottom claimed 3 for 11 in nine overs of wonderfully skilful and accurate swing bowling and was well supported by the hostile Liam Plunkett and the nagging Jack Brooks – they gained a first innings lead of 55; a fine achievement from a position of 113 for 7 in their first innings.They then capitalised on their advantage by seeing off the new ball and the Middlesex bowlers at their freshest and gradually began to carve out a match-defining advantage. Where Middlesex chased the ball, Yorkshire left it. Where Middlesex panicked, Yorkshire were patient. Where Middlesex sought the poor ball, Yorkshire waited for it. Where Middlesex played failed, Yorkshire succeeded.The contrast in approaches was typified by the experiences of England rivals Joe Root and Eoin Morgan. While Morgan battled for a while, desperately trying to resist the urge to chase the ball, his patience was eroded after a spell where he scored just nine runs in 34 balls and he fell to an outrageous thrash – and an excellent catch – at a ball well wide of off stump.Root, by contrast, denied himself such indiscretions. Early in his innings, he was admirably compact and refused to be drawn into deliveries outside his off stump. While there was one early hook for six, Root hit only one other boundary in the first 63 balls of his innings.But, as Middlesex’s three-man seam attack tired, the run began to flow with Root hitting four boundaries in seven balls at one stage – three of them off Steven Finn – and the support bowlers conceded almost four-an-over.There was little wrong with the Middlesex bowling. Finn again generated sharp pace – though probably no sharper than Plunkett’s – and maintained good consistency, while James Harris and Tim Murtagh hardly delivered a poor ball.While Root’s resistance will have done him no harm in the eyes of the England selectors, he was building on a platform established by his side’s opening batsmen. Alex Lees and Adam Lyth, in particular, again impressed in a stand that drew the sting from the attack and set the tone for the rest of the day.While none of the batsmen could go on to establish the dominant innings that would have put this game out of reach – Lees left a straight one, Lyth was drawn into a flirt outside off stump and Root was, as in the first innings, punished for being stuck in the crease – a lead of 268 might prove enough already against a Middlesex line-up that appears oddly brittle.”We’ve bowled well as a quartet all season,” Sidebottom said afterwards. “The way they batted is credit to the way we bowled. The way Plunkett is performing, England should take note. He is bowling fast; I wouldn’t want to bat against him. He is bowling quick and fantastically well.”They bowled well, too, so we had to battle really hard. They gave us nothing for a couple of hours. There’s a lot of cricket to play in this game, though. It could still go either way.”

Surrey added 149 runs to their overnight score before the rain arrived to put an end to a slow day in Chelmsford

Vithushan Ehantharajah at Chelmsford26-May-2014
ScorecardArun Harinath made 63 from 231 balls (file photo)•PA PhotosThey say the Tuesday after the Bank Holiday weekend is worse than any Monday. The additional recovery day almost implores a second, maybe even third night of frivolity. For those at the Essex County Ground today, tomorrow’s inane chat about Saturday’s barbecue and Sunday’s heavy session – “What are you like?!” – can’t come soon enough.Just 121 runs were scored in the first 65 overs. The PA system blared out brass music and kettle drums around the ground throughout the lunch interval, as a cover of Pharrell Williams and Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” taunted, attempting to administer a calypso shot in the arm. There was little response, as the rate flatlined at the ECG.It was only in the last five overs of the day, before the rain arrived to wipe out the evening session, that something stirred, as 28 runs were scored thanks to a combination of the new ball and Jason Roy, always a ball of energy at the crease, regardless of the situation. He was dropped twice, on 0 and 2, by Ben Foakes at short leg. Earlier in the day, Essex also gave Zafar Ansari a lifeline, when he was dropped on 16 by Greg Smith at first slip, off the bowling of Monty Panesar.Ansari went on to add 23 runs to his score, while Roy followed suit before departing for 25 to a ball that nipped in and kept a touch low to trap him lbw, giving new Essex signing Tom Moore his second first-class wicket.It would be irresponsible to point the finger at either side after such a dull day’s cricket. Of course, they do have a share to take from the collective gloom. Surrey’s batsmen treated the part-time spin of Tom Westley and Greg Smith like they were throwing down bolts of thunder and pestilence. When Essex took the new ball in the 89th over, James Foster gave Matt Salisbury an odd field, with three men on the drive, a third man yet no slips. Foster himself may have been under international scrutiny, with Bruce French, coacher of England’s wicketkeepers, taking the time to watch proceedings at Chelmsford, pen and pad in hand.But, to be fair to both teams, the pitch had slowed to almost a crawl. Any movement off the surface for the spinners has been slow enough to be negotiated. Any bounce, Roy’s wicket aside, dealt with in a comfortable manner. Steven Davies left Panesar many times on length alone, as the left-arm spinner struggled to find an optimum pace for the surface.Perhaps the only player to become one with the docile track was Arun Harinath. Quite how someone can remain so patient throughout the day and emerge with their sanity intact is, quite frankly, amazing. You imagine Harinath would hold firm under torture.Batting 172 balls for 42 extra runs, he packed away his drives – yes, he does have them – and played deliveries into pockets of space in front of the bat and around the corner to, eventually, reach fifty in his second start of the season, moving back to opener in the absence of Graeme Smith. All in all, he batted out 31 overs’ worth of dot balls and you could not help but feel for him when he lost his wicket to Greg Smith.It was far from a fluent innings and certainly one that will reinforce the notion among many that Harinath is a limited cricketer. But his runs have taken Surrey past 200 for a first batting point, with Davies well set on 36 and Gary Wilson at the crease to push on for further spoils in the remaining 17 overs of bonus scoring before they concentrate on establishing a lead.

Mahela Jayawardene shot barbs at England’s tactics at Headingley and questioned their embattled captain’s public comments, after Sri Lanka finished day four with a famous away win in sight

Andrew Fidel Fernando23-Jun-2014A fired-up Mahela Jayawardene shot barbs at England’s tactics at Headingley and questioned their embattled captain’s public comments, after Sri Lanka finished day four with a famous away win in sight. The tour has been hard-fought on both sides, with the reporting of Sachithra Senanayake’s bowling action and the England response to Jos Buttler’s Mankading in the fifth ODI causing the most visible grief in the Sri Lanka camp.Sri Lanka’s bowlers have largely prospered by bowling a fuller length at Headingley, while England’s fast bowlers largely bowled shorter. When asked if Sri Lanka had shown England how to bowl seam at the venue, Jayawardene said his side had conveyed that very notion to England’s batsmen in the middle.”Their idea of hurting us and hitting us on the head probably doesn’t work,” he said. “If you’re getting that good length up front, getting the ball to do a bit and being patient, one way or another, people will nick it. I thought we hung in there. We were disciplined enough. We had to get a few hits on our bodies, but I’m sure tomorrow afternoon we’ll have a good laugh about it.”The fourth day began with England holding the edge but Angelo Mathews’ excellent 160 and an intense four-wicket burst from Dhammika Prasad left the visitors with five wickets to get to complete victory.”England were quite chirpy in the morning, but they quietened up after the first hour or so,” Jayawardene said. “That’s part of the game. We know who is on top and who is not. They were quite chirpy yesterday evening as well, and they probably got quite a few from us when they came to bat. They’ll definitely get some more in the morning as well.”Chirping them is something we had spoken about. We’ve seen that under pressure, they’re not quite up to it. So we’ll definitely look forward to tomorrow. There’s a few young guys to come in and they’ll get some sledging.””I definitely feel for him but it doesn’t help when you have arguments with commentators and past cricketers” – Mahela Jayawardene on Alastair Cook•Getty ImagesOn the eve of the match, Alastair Cook had said “concerns had been raised” in the England camp when they viewed Senanayake’s action on video – a comment which will not have been taken well by the Sri Lanka team, who have rallied around Senanayake since his being reported. But it was Cook’s comments about his vocal critic Shane Warne, however, that Jayawardene questioned the wisdom of.”I definitely feel for him but it doesn’t help when you have arguments with commentators and past cricketers. That’s something you can’t control. You try and control what’s there for you, which is trying to perform and carry yourself through.”Cook’s unhappy run has continued through the first part of England’s summer, with his place in the Test team beginning to look shaky, let alone his captaincy. He has averaged 19.5 in the current series. Jayawardene said: “I always felt as a captain – before you are captain, you are a player. You need contribute to the team. You have 11 guys and you’re part of that. You can’t think about too many other things.”Sri Lanka have already sewn up the limited-overs series and if they move on to a Test series win on Tuesday, they will have completed an incredible tour. It would also cap off a five-month stretch in which they have won series across all formats in Bangladesh, the Asia Cup and the World T20. Jayawardene suggested the tense nature of the England tour would make a Test win particularly sweet.”As a team this was always going to be a challenging tour for us,” Jayawardene said. “Things have happened, and we were quite comfortable with the way we handled them. At the end of the day our cricket was always going to be looked upon. I think we’ve played it with the right spirit, and played it very fairly.”Even coming into the Test series, we knew we had to brace for some of the backlash – which we did. We held our fort together and came back strongly. A lot of credit to the team, to the management, and to the entire group. It’s been a long season for us. We haven’t stopped since last December. We’ve been playing cricket pretty much on the road, so if we can get an away Test series win, it would be fantastic going back home.”

South Africa have retained their victorious Test squad for the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in Harare starting August 9

ESPNcricinfo staff29-Jul-2014South Africa Test squad

Hashim Amla (capt), AB de Villiers (vice-capt), Kyle Abbott, Quinton de Kock, JP Duminy, Faf du Plessis, Dean Elgar, Imran Tahir, Morne Morkel, Wayne Parnell, Alviro Petersen, Vernon Philander, Dane Piedt, Dale Steyn, Stiaan van Zyl

South Africa have retained their victorious Test squad for the one-off Test against Zimbabwe in Harare starting August 9. South Africa regained their No.1 Test ranking after three months when they beat Sri Lanka 1-0 in the two-Test series that concluded on Monday.It was Hashim Amla’s first Test series as full-time captain, following the retirement of Graeme Smith. South Africa will play a three-match bilateral ODI series with Zimbabwe following the Test and stay back for a tri-series, also involving Australia.”The Proteas have earned a vote of confidence,” said Cricket South Africa selection convener Andrew Hudson. “We will be naming the ODI squad for the three-match series against Zimbabwe next week and will give consideration to resting a couple of players.”We will, however, be sending our full-strength ODI squad for the following triangular series against Zimbabwe and Australia.”South Africa last played a Test series in Zimbabwe back in 2001.