Umpiring in the World Cup has run into fresh controversy with William Porterfield criticising Asoka de Silva’s decision to give Gary Wilson out lbw despite replays showing he had offered a shot and was hit outside the line

Nagraj Gollapudi in Mohali11-Mar-2011Umpiring in the World Cup has run into fresh controversy with Ireland captain William Porterfield strongly criticising Asoka de Silva’s decision to give Gary Wilson out lbw despite replays showing the batsman had offered a shot to a delivery that replays clearly indicated had hit him outside the line. Porterfield’s comments – unusually sharp for a team captain – came after a match which, he said, turned on that decision.”I am still trying to understand it myself. The feedback we have got so far is that the ball hit him outside the line and the umpire judged him [to be] not playing a shot. I don’t know how many people agree with that,” Porterfield said after Ireland’s 44-run defeat against West Indies.The ball in question, delivered by West Indies captain Darren Sammy, pitched outside the off stump and cut in to hit the outside of Wilson’s front pad. Wilson was trying to nudge it but failed but the Sri Lankan official thought he was offering no shot and raised his finger instantly. A surprised Wilson asked for a review. Third umpire Bruce Oxenford told de Silva that the ball had hit outside off and would, according to HawkEye, go on to hit the outside of the off stump. Replays on the big screen made that clear as also the fact that Wilson was actually trying to play the shot. Disappointed and confused, Wilson asked de Silva to refer the review this time. It was an extraordinary moment, which bordered on the comical, as de Silva went back to Oxenford once again. In the end, de Silva stuck to his stand and Wilson charged out, furiously shaking his head.”If you see the replay on the big screen he could have still been able to reverse his decision from there. It was clearly seen he was playing the shot. (And) even though he [de Silva] judged that (wrongly) in the first place he saw the replays on the big screen,” Porterfield said. He said that he did not have much time to discuss the issue with Wilson, who was not “in a great state of mind” when he came off the ground. “The word we are getting at the minute is the umpire went back upstairs to check if he hit the ball before the impact on the pad and if it was pad first, or bat first. Surely if you are asking if it was pad first or bat first, you know he is playing a shot. In my opinion they got it wrong.”Asked if the DRS was proving to be a nuisance rather than a help, Porterfield said he would not blame the reviews per se. “I would like to say it (DRS) was working but if you get a decision like that then I don’t know. When you have all the technology, it is supposed to eradicate the mistakes and for me that did not happen this time.”Interestingly, Porterfield – speaking at the post-match press conference – had to stop briefly as Phil Simmons, the Ireland coach, walked in to have a few private words with a team official, who in turn relayed the message to Porterfield. The exchange, the media was told, was “off the record”.Porterfield admitted that Wilson’s wicket was the turning point in Ireland’s chase. Wilson had showed a wise head in the company of Ed Joyce, sharing a vital 91-run partnership for the fourth wicket. After Joyce departed Wilson took the onus on him and was playing fluently. Ireland needed 77 from 51 balls and the batting Powerplay was yet to be taken when Wilson was ruled out. “It was the pivotal moment in the game. It was not one of the things that cost us the game as there were other things we did,” Porterfield said. “But it was a pretty crucial decision. He was going well. If we had taken the Powerplay we never know especially with Cusy [Alex Cusack] and John boy [Mooney] to come there.”One man who was more than happy to see the back of Wilson was Sammy. “I was happy that we got him out. That was the main focus for us, he back in the pavilion,” he said.But at the time of the incident, Sammy was intensely chatting to Wilson after de Silva’s original decision. Asked if he saw Wilson’s point, Sammy said personally he would not have argued with the umpire. “Umpires have been in charge ever since I started playing cricket. He did what he had to do,” Sammy said. So what was he was making Wilson aware of? “I personally tried to tell him you know what, at the end of the day, the umpire said you are out so don’t hang around because you don’t really make an issue and get fined. We learned as a team that if the umpire says you are out, unless he tells you to hold on, you walk. You can always give your feedback in the captain’s report.”Incidentally, Ireland were fined. But for another crime. Apparently they had bowled an over short and as a consequence Porterfield was penalised 20% of his match fee while the rest of the team had to take a 10% cut.

MS Dhoni said that Indian cricket was in its current position because of the 1983 World Cup win and the emergence of Sachin Tendulkar, Anil Kumble, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid

Sharda Ugra in Mumbai03-Apr-2011Before he led India to a World Cup victory, MS Dhoni’s earliest identity as a cricketer had been attached to the Twenty20 format. It was India’s victory in the World Twenty20 under Dhoni that was one of the factors that led to the speedy launch of the Indian Premier League. Dhoni then led his team, the Chennai Super Kings, to a double last year, winning the IPL and the Champions League Twenty20 in South Africa.Yet, more than once during this World Cup, Dhoni has demonstrated that he is conscious of the course taken by Indian cricket in the last three decades and where Saturday’s victory now stands.At the media conference following India’s six-wicket victory, Dhoni was asked by an English reporter to explain what the World Cup victory actually meant to Indians who, Dhoni was told, did not enjoy much success in other world-level sport. Yuvraj Singh, the World Cup’s Player of the Tournament sitting next to Dhoni, raised his eyebrow, and his captain took the opportunity to say that India had been growing as a nation that supports sport, citing the examples from shooting, badminton, hockey and football.But cricket, Dhoni said, “was special” to Indians because of the change that the 1983 victory achieved for Indian cricket. “People started loving the sport and you then saw two individuals making their debut, Anil Kumble and Sachin Tendulkar.” He then said that the successful careers of Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid, which began in 1996, marked the next step. “This was the chain of players because of whom we are in this position right now. We earn a lot of money, we get a lot respect and what we are trying to do is to pass it onto the next generation.”Three of the players mentioned by Dhoni were at the Wankhede Stadium on Saturday night; Tendulkar a part of Dhoni’s team, Kumble in the audience and new commentator-columnist Ganguly, who stood at the boundary on the far side of dressing room from where he watched the Indian team go past on its lap of honour with Tendulkar sitting on Yusuf Pathan’s shoulders. Ganguly, who led India to the final of the 2003 World Cup and who still responds to India’s performance as if he were a part of the team, was beaming. “What a win,” he said, “what a performance.”Dhoni was asked to compare his two biggest victories as India captain and said, that while every format was “special” in its own way, “I have always loved the ODI format. Because I always think you see a lot of variety in one-day cricket.” The final he said had been the best example. “In this game, we lost a couple of early wickets and then you have two batsmen struggling to get runs.” He said that the one-day game showed “a glimpse” of what may not be Test cricket but was a shortened version of its demands.”Two batsmen looking for survival and looking to get runs at the same time. At the end you saw a slog, from Yuvraj and me. And at the end of it,” Dhoni said, “you see a result.” It is a summary that would please the ICC enormously which, after the unfortunate 2007 event in the Caribbean, has needed a successful World Cup to prove to its community that the three formats of the sport could survive. Between that World Cup and this one, there has been a mushrooming of the Twenty20 leagues, and was seen as a threat to the 50-over format. Now with the captain of the 2011 World Cup winners, and the biggest audience and market in the sport, enthusiastically endorsing the format, the ICC has further proof of what it has always maintained: that the 50-over game can play a few more innings.

Kings XI Punjab will be replacing England allrounder Stuart Broad and Dimitri Mascarenhas in their squad for the 2011 IPL

Tariq Engineer23-Mar-2011Kings XI Punjab will be replacing England allrounder Stuart Broad and Dimitri Mascarenhas in their squad for the 2011 IPL, as both players are unavailable for the tournament due to injuries, a franchise official has said. Broad picked up a side strain during the World Cup, while Mascarenhas has not yet recovered from surgery to fix his achilles injury.”We are still in the process of identifying their replacements,” Aravinder Singh, the chief operating officer for Punjab, told ESPNcricinfo. “I am in touch with the coach and the captain.”Under IPL rules, the replacements have to be chosen from the pool of players who went unsold in the January auction, and cannot be paid more than the players they are replacing, though they can be paid less, depending on their base price in the auction. This limits the choice of players to those whose base price is equivalent to, or less than, the players being replaced. Broad was bought for $400,000 while Mascarenhas was bought for $100,000. Both replacements will be for the 2011 season only.Punjab opens the tournament on April 10 against Sahara Pune Warriors at the DY Patil Sports Academy in Mumbai. The team began its preparations for the tournament on Monday with a six-day fitness camp at the HPCA Stadium, with the final camp for the full team to be held at Mohali from April 2 to April 8.Mumbai Indians have also signed a replacement player, according to a BCCI statement listing the players in each team, with Sri Lanka fast bowler Dilhara Fernando coming in for Australia fast bowler Clint Mckay, who was diagnosed with a stress fracture in his left foot in January.
Pune are the only team to sign the full complement of 30 players, while the Kolkata Knight Riders have the fewest players on their roster with 20. The defending champions Chennai Super Kings have 23 players.The Deccan Chargers, who have 27 players in their squad, still have US $1.49 million out of their allotted $9 million, the most of any franchise, while Punjab has approximately $1.46 million left over. Rajasthan Royals, whose salary cap was reduced by a court order, have spent all of their money. The Mumbai Indians, one of two teams to retain the maximum four players, have $1739 remaining. Chennai, the other team to keep four players, have $15,435 left over.

Sri Lanka Cricket has decided to allow its cricketers to play in the IPL till May 18, after a meeting with sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage

ESPNcricinfo staff21-Apr-2011Sri Lanka Cricket has decided to allow its cricketers to play in the IPL till May 18, after a meeting with sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage. The board had earlier asked the players to return on May 5 in order to prepare for the tour of England, which begins with a practice match against Middlesex on May 14. However, they have now issued a release saying the players have only to arrive in time for the second warm-up game, against England Lions, starting May 19. The first Test is on May 26.”We are favourably looking at giving players more time to play the IPL before joining the team for the England tour,” Aluthgamage told . “We have excellent relations with the government of India and the Indian cricket board. We don’t want to upset, or embarrass India.”He, however, denied that Sri Lanka were succumbing to pressure from the BCCI. He said the initial decision to call the players back early was taken by the new selection panel headed by Duleep Mendis in order to give the players time to prepare for the series, and it was not intended to spark any controversy. “The selectors felt the boys were playing too many one-dayers and Twenty20s for the past two months. They wanted the players to come early and adjust to English conditions and new changes in team management. There is no sinister move.”As seven of the 16 players selected for the Test tour are involved in the IPL, SLC secretary Nishantha Ranatunga stated that the selectors would pick an additional three to four players to make up the XI for the tour opener against Middlesex.SLC had originally given the Sri Lanka players till May 20 to play in the IPL, and following their change in the date, the BCCI had contacted Sri Lanka’s board asking them to reconsider. The decision had sparked mixed reactions among the Sri Lanka players, with Muttiah Muralitharan criticising it, while new captain Tillakaratne Dilshan said he did not mind it since playing for the country came before playing the IPL.Sri Lanka’s players will now miss only the last week of the IPL. Lasith Malinga has not been slected for the Tests, since he had told the board he was injured, but he has been asked to return to Sri Lanka to undergo a rehabilitation programme.

Royal Challengers Bangalore may as well rename him Criss Gayle

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga27-May-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Chris Gayle was devastating once again•AFP

In Jamaica the term is used to suggest everything is all right. Royal Challengers Bangalore may as well rename him Criss Gayle. For with Gayle, they criss. Gayle fell 11 short of his third century this IPL, but for 15 overs he played so much above the game that the 37 that came in the five after his exit didn’t look far off par on this surface. Mumbai struggled to replicate Gayle’s impact except with the new ball when they got off to a flying start. Gayle came on then to stifle the openers with a two-run over. The pressure resulted in wickets, everything was criss again, and Bangalore were in the final of the IPL.When batting, Gayle was assisted by Mayank Agarwal, his 20-year-old opening partner yet to make first-class debut, who scored 41 off 31 in a 113-run opening stand. Gayle will be the first one to concede, though, that he couldn’t have found a more accommodating opposition. To begin with, Mumbai Indians opted to bowl on a track where sides batting first have won six out of seven games this season. Then they refused to take the bull by its horn, throwing the new ball to Abu Nechim as opposed to Lasith Malinga. It can be argued that they succeeded in the previous game with Dhawal Kulkarni bowling the first over, but surely against a side as heavily reliant on Gayle as Bangalore they would have unleashed their best bowler right away.Nechim can still argue he hardly bowled a bad ball in that first over, but he still went for 27. The first of the boundaries came off an edge past slip, the second burst through Sachin Tendulkar at mid-off. Nechim, though, bowled length, and Gayle took six, two and four off the rest of the over. Agarwal played his part, foiling Mumbai’s other strategic move of bowling Harbhajan Singh to Gayle. Gayle faced only one delivery in Harbhajan’s two overs at the start, with Agarwal dominating the strike and hitting big, down the ground and with the turn, taking 20 runs.More friendliness followed from Mumbai as Malinga dropped Agarwal at square leg. At 57 for 0 after four, it became a Gayle show. Malinga bowled one good over full of slower ones for just one, but Gayle had his way with the rest of the bowlers. Only Rohit Sharma escaped his wrath, but Agarwal tucked into him with a four and a six. The beauty of the partnership was obvious: the right-hand batsman took care of the offspinners, Gayle everything else. The best of Gayle revealed itself in the 10th over, when Nechim was almost through a decent comeback over for four runs. The last ball, though, hardly left the ground, and yet crashed into the sight screen. Gayle was on 61 off 32 then, Bangalore 111.Rohit dropped Agarwal in the next over, but made amends two balls later. Gayle, however, was not through, and went on to suggest that maybe he didn’t need any shielding from Harbhajan, smacking him for back-to-back sixes over midwicket. Munaf, who held his own along with Malinga, eventually got rid of Gayle with a slightly slower one, and patted Gayle’s back as he walked back. All of a sudden, slower balls started working, the ball started gripping the surface, inside edges appeared, and the batting seemed like hard work. Just how well Gayle batted was further driven home.Despite the early wickets, Tendulkar, through cricketing shots and some improvisation, kept Mumbai’s fans interested with 40 off 24, but ICL returnee J Syed Mohammad produced one sharp offbreak across Tendulkar to get him stumped. Kieron Pollard, who often teases the fans in such chases with late but insufficient hitting, was spectacularly and coolly caught by Abhimanyu Mithun on the edge of the long-on boundary. With the Mumbai dugout right behind him, Mithun stood with his feet six inches inside as the Mumbai extras made way for him, stretched over the boundary and completed the catch one-handed to shut the door on Mumbai. The filmstar Mithun, known for his outlandish stunts, would have been proud.

Derbyshire moved into a match-winning performance at the midway point of their County Championship clash against Glamorgan thanks to Jon Clare’s figures of 5 for 29 and Dan Redfern’s 88 with the bat

28-Jun-2011
ScorecardDerbyshire moved into a match-winning performance at the midway point of their County Championship clash against Glamorgan thanks to Jon Clare’s figures of 5 for 29 and Dan Redfern’s 88 with the bat.Derbyshire made 367 all out in their first innings in Cardiff before the hosts limped to 174 for 8 in reply at the close of the second day of the Division Two match. They were 193 behind, needing a further 44 to avoid the follow-on.Only Glamorgan captain Alviro Petersen, with 83 not out, showed any real resistance. In only the second over of the day Redfern brought up his fourth 50 of the summer in 92 balls with five fours before Glamorgan hit back with the new ball.Graham Wagg struck with the fourth delivery, trapping Ross Whiteley lbw. Glamorgan continued to take wickets at regular intervals. Luke Sutton was dismissed when he top-edged a James Harris delivery to wicketkeeper Mark Wallace.Redfern perished for 88 when he played on to Jim Allenby, failing to convert a 12th first-class 50 into his maiden century as Derbyshire reached lunch at 338 for 7. Allenby hit form in the afternoon session as he took the remaining three wickets to claim career-best figures of five for 44 from 20 overs. It was Allenby’s third five-wicket haul of his career and his second for Glamorgan.But batting points proved harder to come by as opener Gareth Rees began Glamorgan’s procession of wickets before tea, falling leg before to Tim Groenewald, who also accounted for Will Bragg in a similar manner.From 36 for two the home side sank further into trouble at 59 for three when Mike Powell was caught behind off Whiteley. Ben Wright followed in the next over when he top-edged a pull to Knight running back at square leg off Clare, who also struck three balls later when Allenby was bowled by a full delivery for a duck. Glamorgan lost three wickets for one run in 10 balls as 59 for two became 60 for 5.Petersen, who reached his 50 from 105 balls, put on 68 with Wallace before the wicketkeeper, Harris and Wagg were all caught behind off Clare in the space of three balls. On 74, Petersen did survive a chance at short leg off Knight, the slow left-armer.

In the end, England were so ruthless in their dismantling of the No. 1 Test side that it was hard to believe India had been in match-winning positions twice in the first two days

The Report by George Binoy01-Aug-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Tim Bresnan was England’s hero on the fourth day•Getty Images

In the end, England were so ruthless in their dismantling of the No. 1 Test side that it was hard to believe India had been in match-winning positions twice in the first two days. Before the fourth day was over in Nottingham, England had secured the two-match lead they need to win the series by to move to the top of the ICC rankings. Their lower-order batsmen ransacked a hapless bowling and fielding outfit, before their fast bowlers demolished India with venom the Nottingham crowd hadn’t witnessed since Stuart Broad’s hat-trick on the second evening. England had broken India and the upshot was victory by 319 runs, the largest margin in Tests after conceding a first-innings lead.Several England players have queued up to perform starring roles this series, and today the unlikeliest of them all took his turn. Tim Bresnan, who was selected only because Chris Tremlett was hamstrung, tenderised batsmen with accurate short-pitched bowling and his career-best performance of 5 for 48 helped blow India away for 158. His spell came after he had bashed the ball around Trent Bridge during a partnership of 82 with Broad at a run-rate of 6.30. Bresnan helped England score 103 runs in 19.2 overs and extend their lead from 374 to 477.Like their bowlers and fielders during England’s second innings, India’s batsmen showed no fight after they began the improbable task of surviving more than five sessions. Rather, England didn’t let them fight. Andrew Strauss’s team was streets ahead of India in terms of strength, fitness and preparation and that widened the gulf in form between the sides.James Anderson should have reprised his first-innings success of striking first ball, but Abhinav Mukund’s edge was dropped at slip. England, however, did not have to wait long, and Stuart Broad snagged the bigger fish. During the 30 minutes he had to survive before lunch, Rahul Dravid, India’s best batsman on tour, edged Broad to Matt Prior. India were 8 for 1 at the break.

Smart stats

• For the first time since 1974, England have won two Tests in a home series against India.

• In Tests since 1990, this is the seventh time that India have lost by a margin of 300 runs or more (excluding innings defeats). In the same period, the 319-run loss is their largest margin of defeat against England.

• India’s score of 158 is their second-lowest fourth-innings total in a Test defeat against England in Tests since 1990. Their lowest total is 100 in Mumbai in 2006.

• Bresnan’s 5 for 48 is his first five-wicket haul in Tests. After Stuart Broad achieved the feat of scoring a fifty and picking up five wickets against India, Bresnan did the same in the second innings.

• England’s total of 544 is the second-highest total made in the team second innings against India. The highest is Pakistan’s 599 in Karachi in 2006.

• Since 1990, England’s total of 221 is their fifth-lowest score in the match first innings in a Test victory. Excluding the 2006 Oval forfeiture, their lowest first-innings total in a win in the same period is 180 against Australia at the Oval in 1997.

• James Anderson dismissed Sachin Tendulkar for the seventh time in eight Tests. He is now second behind Muttiah Muralitharan on the list of bowlers who have dismissed Tendulkar most often in Tests.

• England scored 73 fours in their second innings. In Tests since 1990, this is joint-fifth on the list of England innings with the most boundaries.

• Rahul Dravid’s first-innings century is only his third in a Test defeat and his second hundred in a defeat in this series. Of his 34 centuries, 14 have come in wins and 17 in draws.

When play resumed, Anderson took out India’s other second-innings pillar, bowling VVS Laxman with the perfect delivery. It drew the batsman forward, straightened off the pitch, beat the outside edge and still managed to uproot off stump. Laxman was left looking wide-eyed and bewildered. India were 13 for 2. And then it was over to Bresnan, who sent down short ball after short ball at batsmen ill-equipped to cope with such a hostile attack.He had Abhinav fending helplessly at a bouncer that lobbed off the glove to slip. He had Raina caught at long leg, playing an uncontrolled hook against a rising delivery. And after softening Yuvraj, who was hit on the body several times, Bresnan had him caught at slip too. Yuvraj had also fended haplessly, unaware that Alastair Cook had caught the ball until he saw the celebrations begin. Bresnan then dismissed MS Dhoni first ball, lbw after the Indian captain offered no shot. India were 68 for 6 at lunch.Of the specialist batsmen, only Sachin Tendulkar had resisted. He had begun his innings positively, driving down the ground repeatedly, but the speed of his scoring plummeted as the carnage unfolded at the other end. Tendulkar, however, only achieved his 60th half-century and not his 100th hundred. After he too was lbw, padding up to an Anderson inswinger, England were always going to win before stumps. Broad, who had twice rescued England with bat and ball, fittingly took the final wicket, bowling Sreesanth in the 48th over.The fourth day had begun as the third had ended – with India hunting leather. Bresnan, who had resumed on 47, reached his half-century with an edge that flew over the cordon to third man, which remained empty despite a glut of runs in the region. Prior, who batted aggressively last evening, also hit consecutive fours – a glance to fine leg and a cover drive off Praveen. He didn’t last long though, edging Praveen to Dhoni to end the seventh-wicket stand on 119 off 20 overs.Broad, however, gave India no respite. He and Bresnan, whose driving when offered full and wide deliveries was sublime, ran India ragged. Dhoni also turned to his part-time spinners – Yuvraj and Raina. Yuvraj dropped short on the off side and Broad clobbered him repeatedly towards the cover boundary. When Raina pitched short, Broad heaved consecutive deliveries into the cheering masses beyond the midwicket boundary. It was brutal.The partnership ended on 82 because of a rare moment of brilliance in the field. Broad pushed towards cover and set off for the single. The substitute Wriddhiman Saha rushed in, swooped on the ball and threw at the bowler’s end in one flowing motion, scoring a direct hit that caught Broad short. The rest of India’s fielders were utterly exposed. Bresnan and Broad only needed to place the ball slightly wide of the fielders to reach the boundary. India had not looked this outclassed on a cricket field in recent memory.

Somerset extended their lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank 40 Group C table but they had to settle for a point after no result was possible in their clash with Lancashire Lightning at Old Trafford

18-Jul-2011
Scorecard
Somerset extended their lead at the top of the Clydesdale Bank 40 Group C table but they had to settle for a point after no result was possible in their clash with Lancashire Lightning at Old Trafford.Rain throughout the day in Manchester prevented play starting until 8.15pm, which meant the clash was reduced to 15 overs per side. But there was more wet weather to come after 7.4 overs of Lancashire’s innings with the hosts struggling at 39 for 3 on a turning track.Somerset, last year’s runners-up, may have moved one point clear of Essex after six matches but this result ended their 100 percent record in this year’s competition. Spinners Murali Kartik, Max Waller and Arul Suppiah bowled 5.4 of the 7.4 overs – with the former two taking the new ball.Indian Kartik, a former Lancashire overseas player, struck with the sixth ball of the match when he had Stephen Moore caught at point by Craig Meschede. Lightning stand-in captain Steven Croft, who had earlier won the toss, hit two boundaries off Waller’s first over but he and his partners failed to find the fence again until the seventh over when he pulled Meschede’s medium pace to the fence twice.During that time opener Karl Brown became the second wicket to go, trapped lbw by Alfonso Thomas for one to leave the score at 15 for 2 in the third over. Paul Horton struggled for any rhythm during his innings of 7 not out off 17 balls and he lost Croft lbw to the legspin of Waller the ball before the rain arrived as Jordan Clark made his way to the crease.Croft, whose side have only won two of their six matches, finished with 26 off 18 balls. Kartik claimed figures of 1 for 6 from two overs, and Thomas 1 for 1 from one over.

Alan Butcher, Zimbabwe’s coach, singled out dropped catches as the reason for his team squandering their chance of being competitive in the latter stages of the Test

Firdose Moonda in Bulawayo05-Sep-2011Alan Butcher, Zimbabwe’s coach, singled out dropped catches as the reason for his team squandering their chance of being competitive in the latter stages of the Test against Pakistan. Zimbabwe dropped six catches in Pakistan’s first innings and conceded a lead of 54 runs, after they had scored an impressive 412 themselves.”Catching probably cost us a chance of winning,” Butcher said. “We had every reason to believe that we would get a first-innings lead.” Mohammad Hafeez, who was Pakistan’s only centurion, was dropped twice, while Misbah-ul-Haq, Younis Khan and Umar Akmal were also put down. The bulk of the missed chances were relatively simple and Brendan Taylor said the team felt a general “frustration” at not taking their opportunities.They were less hard on themselves for the batting collapse in the second innings, which resulted in Pakistan being given a small target to chase. “On this wicket there was always potential for a collapse,” Butcher said. “[Saeed] Ajmal will cause better teams than ours some problems but we were disappointed to lose so many wickets to Hafeez in the second innings, because we thought he didn’t spin it that much.”Hafeez took four middle- and lower-order wickets after Ajmal had bagged three, with Aizaz Cheema chipping in with one. After slumping 69 for 8 on the fourth day, defeat appeared certain for Zimbabwe, but Tatenda Taibu’s stubborn half-century gave them slim hope of posting a defendable total. “We wanted to try and bat a session, bat some time out of the game and then chip away and build a lead,” Taylor said. “We knew anything could happen given their [Pakistan’s] history.”For a change, “anything” did not happen and Pakistan went on to record a routine victory. Zimbabwe lost by a smaller margin than the last time they played Pakistan – a 10-wicket defeat in Bulawayo in 2002 – and instead of dwell on the defeat they are opting to zone in on other aspects of their game as they look to rebuild a reputation in Test cricket.”There are a lot of positives to take out of this,” Taylor said “I wouldn’t say more than the Bangladesh game, but there are definitely positives. It was good to see us bat for 150 overs.” Butcher also lauded the first innings effort, in particular Tino Mawoyo’s maiden Test century. “Having an opening batsman bat through an innings was good.”Ajmal proved the major threat of the match, and tested Zimbabwe right through the first innings, even when the pitch had yet to show cracks. Butcher was pleased with the way Zimbabwe tried to withstand his assault. “We said if he is going to get a lot of wickets, then we will make him bowl a lot of overs for it and we made Ajmal bowl 50 overs to get his four wickets.”The Zimbabwe bowlers had a tough time on an unresponsive strip and Taylor thought, “The spinners worked hard together and showed good character,” while Butcher was impressed that, “having conceded so quickly at the start to have pulled it back was also good.”Zimbabwe’s inexperienced seam attack of Brian Vitori, Kyle Jarvis and Chris Mpofu took a pasting, managing only four wickets between them. Vitori, the nation’s wonderkid after his performances against Bangladesh, did not snag a single victim. “There were high hopes for him after Harare, he is hungry to learn,” Taylor said. “He has a great attitude and he will be back.”Butcher said the unhelpful surface will only aid Vitori’s development. “It took him a lot longer to find his length,” he said. “He has probably been brought back down to earth after his spectacular start but it was always going to happen.” While Vitori was expensive, Jarvis and Mpofu leaked a little less and Taylor said the pair could “hold their heads up high” for a brave showing.

Michael Hussey says Shaun Marsh has the composure to deal with being 87 not out overnight and praised the debutant’s concentration

Daniel Brettig in Pallekele09-Sep-2011Michael Hussey batted with Shaun Marsh when he made his first-class debut, and again when Marsh clouted a first century for Western Australia. He hopes to be there again to see Marsh mark his Test debut with a century.Marsh was unbeaten on 87 when he and Hussey, 76 not out, were sent to the dressing room more than an hour before the scheduled close of play on the second day in Pallekele due to bad light. Mahela Jayawardene, the Sri Lanka batsman, made sure to remind the debutant that he was stuck on a score considered unlucky in Australia because it is 13 runs short of a hundred. But Hussey said Marsh had shown the composure of a Test batsman in an innings played in fluctuating conditions and circumstances, allying it to the talent he had first displayed when spanking 119 against New South Wales in 2003.That day Steve Waugh had attempted to unsettle Marsh in the 90s and, as Hussey recalled, the response was emphatic.”That was an amazing innings,” Hussey said. “I remember that vividly because Steve Waugh was at cover and Mark Waugh was bowling. Shaun got into the 90s and Steve just got into his head a bit saying `don’t get nervous now Shaun, you know you’ve played so well, don’t throw away a hundred now’, and he hit the next two balls for six to bring up his 100. Obviously there is still a lot of work to go in this match and as long as he keeps sticking to his game he’ll be fine.”It’s a bad score to be stuck on and Mahela did give him a little wink as he was walking off and said `Jeez, you wouldn’t want to be 87 not out overnight’. But it’s not going to bother him I don’t think. I said something like `I’d much rather be on 87 than seven overnight’.”In Pallekele, Marsh withstood a sharp early spell from Suranga Lakmal when he first arrived, then matched wits with the spin of Suraj Randiv for most of the day, which saw Australia recover from an iffy 116 for 3 to be powerfully placed at 264 for 3 by the early close. Hussey said Marsh’s concentration was the most impressive feature of his innings, which saw him face 211 balls on the second day.”I thought he showed tremendous concentration because there were periods when scoring was difficult. They bowled really tight for a while and it was tough. Obviously in your first Test match you’re going to be pretty nervous but he got his feet moving well. He showed good composure to be able to get through a tough early period and even beyond that.”They still continually bowled well to him and it was difficult to get any momentum going with his innings. He showed great concentration and then you could just see the confidence grow a little bit as the innings wore on. I think when he got that legspinner [Seekkuge Prasanna] away for a few boundaries in a row you could see him start to believe that he belonged there.”That sense of belonging at the international level has not always been evident, perhaps because Marsh’s overall record is somewhat underwhelming. He averages 37.71 in first-class cricket and has made only six hundreds, but can add to that tally on the third day by employing the more measured and consistent approach Hussey has witnessed him develop in Western Australia.”It’s been well documented that early in his career he was a bit inconsistent but I think if you look at the way he’s played in the last two or three years in first-class cricket he’s been a lot more consistent. With the way he’s prepared, the way he’s approached his innings and the way he’s played out in the middle, he’s had a lot more understanding of his game and the conditions and probably his routines. Obviously he wants more hundreds in the column but it’s pretty tough to make first-class hundreds let alone Test hundreds.”Hussey admitted to struggling for concentration and touch at times throughout his own innings, but it was another vital contribution on a tour during which he has made many, from the 95 on the first day in Galle to the stunning gully catch and freak wicket with the ball to start the Pallekele Test.Kumar Sangakkara had been a most unlikely Test victim of Hussey’s slow-medium seamers on the first afternoon, and attempted to get his own back by not only bowling but taking the new ball. Hussey admitted considerable relief when the ball was given back to a specialist.”You don’t want it to last for very long. I was pretty happy when he took the new ball; I thought at least it might come on a little more, but he got a little swing as well, so it was a relief when he went off. I didn’t want to get out to Kumar and for him to pay me back.”