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Dhawan, Abhinav batter Rajasthan

by n8rngtd.top Uncategorized

Rest of India secured the Irani Cup by virtue of a whopping first-innings lead and then, instead of enforcing the follow-on, chose to bat again and batter Rajasthan further

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Oct-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsShikhar Dhawan got his second century of the match•ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Rest of India secured the Irani Cup by virtue of a whopping first-innings lead and then, instead of enforcing the follow-on, chose to bat again and batter Rajasthan further. And batter them they did. Shikhar Dhawan and Abhinav Mukund scored at breakneck pace, made substantial centuries, and helped Rest of India amass 354 for 2 in 54 overs. The late declaration, however, reduced Rest of India’s chances of an outright win as Rajasthan had all ten wickets intact at stumps, chasing an impossible 618 for victory.Rajasthan began the fourth day in Jaipur needing 157 to avoid the follow-on with four wickets in hand. They managed only 93. Ashok Menaria, who had resumed on 59, made 20 more before falling to left-arm spinner Pragyan Ojha. Menaria had charged and lofted straight to long-on. In his next over Ojha had the other overnight batsman, Deepak Chahar, lbw with an arm-ball.Tailenders Madhur Khatri and Sumit Mathur were both dropped by Manish Pandey at slip as they swung freely for a few quick runs. They added 50 for the ninth wicket before Vinay Kumar trapped Khatri lbw for 31 off 28 balls. Minutes later, Ojha completed his five-wicket haul by inducing an edge to slip from Mathur. Rajasthan were dismissed for 400, trailing by 263.Parthiv Patel decided to bat again, instead of giving his bowlers more time in the field, and Rest of India pursued quick runs. The openers attacked from the start with Dhawan continuing to punish Chahar for pitching too short. He brought up his half-century off 53 deliveries, by driving a full ball from Chahar to the cover boundary. Abhinav made up for his first-innings failure and reached his fifty off 73 balls. They continued plundering a clueless Rajasthan attack and by tea the opening stand was 200 in 33 overs, with both Dhawan and Abhinav in the 90s.In the first over after the break, Dhawan cut Chahar and ran a double to bring up a century off 90 balls. He became the first batsman to score a hundred in each innings of the Irani Cup. Abhinav reached his century a few overs later, off 121 balls. It was his third successive hundred in the Irani Cup. Dhawan then laid into Robin Bist, hitting him for two fours and a six in one over and four fours and a six in another.The partnership had swelled to 310 in the 46th over when Dhawan miscued a loft to long-on and was caught for 155 off 126 balls. His innings contained 22 fours and three sixes. Mukund fell a few balls after bringing up his 150, holing out to long-on off Menaria. Rest of India were 328 for 2 and the declaration came not long after.With the Irani Cup already lost on the first-innings lead, Rajasthan could only battle to avoid an outright defeat and their openers survived seven overs before stumps. They made 28 and will need to negotiate a testing period on the final morning to help secure a draw.

Marsh and Hussey star before rain sets in

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There was plenty for Australia to celebrate on the third day in Pallekele – Shaun Marsh’s hundred on debut, and Michael Hussey’s 14th Test century – but Sri Lanka ended the day with some hope of salvaging a draw after rain washed out almost the entire aft

The Report by Brydon Coverdale10-Sep-2011
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsMichael Hussey and Shaun Marsh put on 258 for the fourth wicket•Associated Press

There was plenty for Australia to celebrate on the third day in Pallekele – Shaun Marsh’s hundred on debut, and Michael Hussey’s 14th Test century – but Sri Lanka ended the day with some hope of salvaging a draw after rain washed out almost the entire afternoon’s play. Only 40.3 overs were bowled, mostly before lunch, and Australia extended their lead to 237, but with further showers expected over the next two days, Michael Clarke’s men were wondering if they would have time to knock Sri Lanka over again and take a 2-0 series lead.An overnight declaration loomed as a possibility as the Australians would not wish to waste their big advantage, set up during a terrific 258-run stand between Marsh and Hussey, the second highest for Australia in Tests against Sri Lanka, and the highest for any country for the fourth wicket against Sri Lanka. And while Hussey’s composure was expected, the way Marsh played in his first innings made him look like a Test natural.He became the 19th Australian to score a century on his Test debut, and the only one of his countrymen to achieve the feat batting at No.3 was the great Bill Ponsford. Marsh started the day on 87 and quickly moved off the unlucky number with a glide past gully for four.Negotiating the nineties proved slightly tougher; Hussey was on 76 when Marsh moved out of the eighties, yet he reached triple-figures before his younger partner. Both men got there in the same over, Hussey pushing a two past midwicket off Suraj Randiv, before Marsh swept two from the final ball of the over.It was a wonderful moment for the Marsh family; his father Geoff jumped to his feet in the stands, riding the two runs home like he was cheering on a race-horse, and Shaun raised his bat and high-fived Hussey when he caught his breath. Both batsmen soon lifted their tempo and Marsh brought out some of his limited-overs strokes, including a brutal drive back over the bowler’s head for four off Chanaka Welegedara.Hussey eventually fell for 142 when he lofted Thilan Samaraweera – who hadn’t taken a Test wicket since 2004 – to deep cover. It was the third hundred in seven Tests for Hussey, who since the start of the Ashes he has averaged 68.50, and it continued a remarkable Test for him after he took a stunning catch hurling himself to his left at gully on the first day, and bowled a wicket maiden to get rid of Kumar Sangakkara.Hussey was the only wicket to fall before lunch, but in the eight overs delivered after the break Australia suffered a mini-collapse. On 141, Marsh pulled Suranga Lakmal to deep midwicket, and in the next over the out-of-form Brad Haddin lofted a catch tamely to mid-on off the bowling of Randiv for 1.Randiv was on a hat-trick after he bowled Mitchell Johnson next ball; Johnson expected the ball to turn away from him and shouldered arms, only to see the topspinner go straight on and rattle his stumps. Ryan Harris negotiated the hat-trick ball – barely – and was 9 not out when the rain came, while Usman Khawaja was on 13.But such a collapse meant little, next to Marsh’s milestone and Australia’s weather worries. There will be some nervous Australians looking out the window at daybreak on Sunday.

Back to the drawing board – Flower

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Andy Flower, the England team director, has said England will have to go “back to the drawing board” to figure out how to play one-day cricket in the subcontinent after they slumped to a 0-5 series defeat in India

ESPNcricinfo staff25-Oct-2011Andy Flower, the England team director, has said England will have to go “back to the drawing board” to figure out how to play one-day cricket in the subcontinent after they slumped to a 0-5 series defeat in India. Flower said he thought England were better prepared for this series than they were when they were beaten by the same scoreline in 2008 but had been proved wrong by the results.”This is a bad setback for us and we have to go back to the drawing board in terms of playing one-day international cricket in the sub-continent,” he said. “We need time to reflect. I thought we’d learnt lessons from three years ago and put in place training drills which would equip our batsmen to deal better with the conditions out here, but I’m obviously wrong in that regard.”England ended the series in dismal fashion, losing their whole side for 47 in a dramatic collapse, after they were 129 for 0 chasing 272 at Eden Gardens. Alastair Cook, the England captain, said good starts and poor finishes had been a common theme of England’s performances through the series.”We set up the game beautifully to go on and win, but they bowled well and we played a couple of poor shots. It was a bit of a disappointing end and a bit of a common theme,” Cook said after the match in Kolkata. “We were in with a shout at 120-odd for nought and just got blown away at the end. It was very disappointing. We know you can lose wickets in clusters and we seem to have lost 10 there in a cluster.”While India’s spinners sparked England’s collapse, the victory had been set up by a fierce late onslaught from India’s captain MS Dhoni, who finished on 75 not out off 69 balls. Dhoni scored 212 runs in the series without being dismissed. He said he always focused on staying unbeaten till the end of an innings because then you could sum up which bowlers to go after.”I always want to stay to the end and whatever is in my area I look to hit it over the boundary,” he said. “It’s important to see which bowlers are left and who you can target. After that it’s about who can bear the pressure well.””It was an ugly looking wicket and any ball could swing or keep low,” Dhoni said of the Eden Gardens pitch. “It was very difficult to score on so we were fortunate to score 270 when 240 or 245 was in our minds. Then we just had to wait for the wicket to spin.”Cook praised Dhoni’s innings but said he thought India’s total was gettable. “Credit to MS; at the end he hits it very well, he’s a very hard person to bowl at and he single-handedly got them up to 270, which was probably gettable the way we started. But when you lose 10 for 50 you’re not going to win anything,” he said.Both Cook and Flower, though, insisted there were positives to take out of the series despite the emphatic scoreline. “Only four of us have played one-day series out here and it’s great for the youngsters to get the experience,” Cook said. “It will show where they need to improve and we all need to improve as a side. We got thoroughly beaten out here but there are quite a few positives; I thought Steven Finn [who took eight wickets over the five games] throughout the series has been excellent.”Flower said the bowling department had shown promise but unfortunately the batsmen had not been able to handle playing spin and had left the bowlers with too much to do. “Our skills weren’t good enough and our handling of the pressure wasn’t good enough,” he said. “We obviously haven’t got the players into a good enough state to deal with the challenges of playing spin, judging length and moving feet.”I think our bowling side has shown glimpses of skill and if there’d been reasonable totals on the board they would have been better at defending them. But unfortunately the bowlers have had to bowl to very attacking fields all the time because that was the only way to win because of our under-par totals.”

Martin bags Sir Richard Hadlee Medal

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Chris Martin, the New Zealand fast bowler, has become the first recipient of the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal, an honour given to the country’s best player of the year

ESPNcricinfo staff10-Nov-2011

New Zealand Cricket Awards winners

  • Chris Martin – Sir Richard Hadlee Medal, player of the year

  • Brendon McCullum – Test Player of the Year (527 runs at 58.55)

  • Ross Taylor – ODI Player of the Year, (798 runs at 39.90)

  • Tim Southee – Twenty20 Player of the Year, (eight wickets at 12.12)

  • Sara McGlashan – Women’s Player of the Year

  • Sophie Devine – Women’s domestic Player of the year (Four fifties, 24 wickets)

  • Rob Nicol – Domestic Player of the year (top scorer in Twenty20 and one-day competitions)

  • Peter Ingram – Redpath Cup, best first-class batting (965 runs at 50.47)

  • Chris Martin – Winsor Cup, best first-class bowling (60 wickets at 25.60)

  • Neil Wagner – Fans’ Choice for outstanding individual performance (Taking five wickets in an over)

  • Simon Hickey – Young player of the year

  • Ces Renwick – Bert Sutcliffe Medal, for outstanding services to cricket

  • Nick Craig – Sir Jack Newman Award, outstanding junior cricket administrator

Chris Martin, the New Zealand fast bowler, has become the first recipient of the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal, an honour given to the country’s best player of the year. There was another gong for him at the New Zealand Cricket Awards in Auckland, winning the Winsor Cup for first-class bowling.Martin, 36, was also a finalist for the Test player of the year and a nominee for Fans’ Choice award for his devastating spell in Ahmedabad when he had India pinned at 15 for 5. He took 60 first-class wickets in the 2010-11 season, including 18 in Tests and 31 for Auckland.”Chris works very hard and has strongly led the BLACKCAPS and Aces bowling attack for this past season and the Sir Richard Hadlee Medal is well deserved,” NZC chief executive Justin Vaughan said.”There were a number of individuals who put their hand up for the supreme award but no one can deny that in the past 12 months Chris has been a stand-out performer in international and domestic First-Class cricket.”The other major winners in the revamped NZC awards were: Brendon McCullum as Test Player of the year, in a season where he took the gamble of becoming a specialist batsman in Tests, and moved up the order; new captain Ross Taylor as ODI Player of the year, in a season where he was the highest run-getter for New Zealand with 798; Tim Southee as outstanding player in Twenty20s, in a year where he took a five-for including a hat-trick against Pakistan which won him the ICC award for Best Twenty20 performance; Sara McGlashan as women’s Player of the Year.

Chilaw Marians, NCC, SSC and Colts reach semi-finals

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The Premier Limited Over Tournament Tier A semi-final line-up has been decided with Nondescripts Cricket Club, Sinhalese Sports Club, Chilaw Marians Cricket Club and Colts Cricket Club coming through

Sa'adi Thawfeeq13-Dec-2011The Premier Limited Over Tournament Tier A semi-final line-up has been decided with Nondescripts Cricket Club and Sinhalese Sports Club qualifying from Group A and Chilaw Marians Cricket Club and Colts Cricket Club coming through from Group B. The same sides made the semi-finals of the previous season as well.The previous final was washed out with SSC and Colts being declared joint champions. The two teams could meet again in the final this year as Colts take on NCC and SSC clash with Chilaw Marians in the semi-finals. However, the weather could be a factor as the final weekend of matches produced two no-results and four out of the remaining six games were decided on the Duckworth-Lewis rule.The group matches produced some exciting finishes, none more than the Colts v Bloomfield game where Colts scraped through by one wicket, scoring the winning runs off the last ball. Bloomfield, dismissed for 183, fought back to reduce Colts to 148 for 8. When the ninth wicket fell at 175, the match could have gone either way. But last man Sajeewa Weerakoon used all his 16-year experience as a first-class cricketer to stick around with match-winner Chathuranga Kumara (39 not out) to steer Colts home.Two days earlier, Bloomfield had managed to win another thriller by one wicket against Ragama. Chasing 222 for victory, they were cruising at 199 for 5 in the 36th over, but former Sri Lanka legspinner Malinga Bandara snapped up three wickets in nine balls to reduce Bloomfield to 211 for 9. It was left to the last pair of Suraj Randiv and Tyron Gamage to knock off the required 11 runs, for which they took 31 balls amid high tension.The opening match of the tournament had two brothers battling it out as Badureliya took on Tamil Union at the P Sara Oval. Tillakaratne Sampath, younger brother of Sri Lanka captain Tillakaratne Dilshan scored a fighting century to help Badureliya recover from 89 for 6 to 193. But Dilshan, opening the batting, struck a run-a-ball 61 as Tamil Union won by five wickets with more than 15 overs to spare.In Tier B, Sri Lanka Army take on Sri Lanka Ports Authority (formerly Seeduwa/Raddoluwa) while Sri Lanka Navy meet Saracens in the semi-finals. Army made the semi-finals previous season as well.Sri Lanka Air Force, who recruited the services of former Sri Lanka captain Sanath Jayasuriya for their final group match, finished second from the bottom in Group B with a solitary victory. Jayasuriya scored 23 off 22 balls in his debut for Air Force against Ports Authority in a match ruined by rain.The 42-year-old Jayasuriya, a Member of Parliament with the ruling party United People’s Freedom Alliance, was given permission by Sri Lanka Cricket’s tournament committee to change clubs midway through the tournament and he joined Air Force from Bloomfield. He will now represent Air Force for the rest of this season.A board official said that a player could represent a team after only seven days of registration especially if he had been out of the country by producing a copy of his passport confirming the date of arrival in Sri Lanka. Jayasuriya was in the UAE recently as part of the Ten Sports commentary team for the series between Sri Lanka and Pakistan.

Foakes century underpins England win

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Essex wicketkeeper Ben Foakes struck a century as England Under-19s claimed victory in the third youth ODI in Chittagong by three wickets

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Jan-2012
ScorecardEssex wicketkeeper Ben Foakes struck a century as England Under-19s claimed victory in the third youth ODI in Chittagong by three wickets. Bangladesh Under-19s, who lead the seven-match series 2-1, posted 252 for 9 in their 50 overs but England chased down the target with six balls to spare.No.3 Foakes anchored the England innings with 111 off 118 balls as the rest of the top order failed – opener Daniel Bell-Drummond was second-top scorer with a quickfire 30. When Foakes was out at the end of the 44th over, the tourists still needed 35 to win, but Adam Ball, who also took four wickets in the match, and Kishen Velani combined to knock off the required runs.The Bangladesh innings was built around Asif Ahmed’s 67, alongside 40s from opener Soumya Sarkar and Mosaddek Hossain. Offspinner Sam Wood took three wickets as England kept a tight rein on the run-rate, before Kent left-armer Ball ran through the middle order, including Ahmed, on his way to 4 for 44.

McDonald moves to Royal Challengers Bangalore

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Royal Challengers Bangalore have picked up Andrew McDonald, the allrounder from Australia, from the Delhi Daredevils for the 2012 IPL season

Tariq Engineer11-Jan-2012Royal Challengers Bangalore have picked up Andrew McDonald, the allrounder from Australia, from the Delhi Daredevils for the 2012 IPL season, the IPL has said. Harmeet Singh, the Punjab medium-pacer, has also moved from Deccan Chargers to Kings XI Punjab.According to a Daredevils official, the transfer fee for McDonald was US$100,000. McDonald played only one game for the Daredevils in 2011. In his three seasons with the team, he played just six games, scoring 76 runs and taking five wickets.”All-rounders are a priceless asset and we are pleased to add Andrew to our squad,” Sidhartha Mallya, the director of Royal Challengers Sports Pvt Ltd, said. “He has excelled with bat and ball in different formats. We have no doubt that he will make a big difference to our prospects in the coming IPL season.”TA Sekar, the head of cricket for Daredevils owner GMR Sports, said McDonald “would fit in well with the Royal Challengers.”McDonald is currently playing for the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League, where he has made 156 runs from five games at an average of 52.00 and a strike-rate of 136.84.Harmeet played two games for the Chargers in 2011, picking up three wickets at an economy rate of 7.57.Harmeet and McDonald were the fourth and fifth players to be traded during the current transfer window. Dinesh Karthik moved from Kings XI to the Mumbai Indians for a record $2.35 million, with R Sathish heading in the opposite direction. Kevin Pietersen was transferred to the Daredevils from the Chargers.”The process of player-transfers during the trading window is gaining in momentum, and we are likely to see more action in the days leading up to 20 January 2012, when the first part of the window will close,” Rajeev Shukla, the IPL chairman, said.There will be another short window for trading after the February 4 auction in which the players of now-terminated franchise Kochi Tuskers Kerala will be sold. The 2012 IPL will run from April 4 to May 27.

Durham to spend pre-season in Dubai

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Durham will participate in the Emirates Twenty20 competition, in Dubai at the end of March, for the second year running as part of their preparations for the new county season

ESPNcricinfo staff03-Feb-2012Durham will participate in the Emirates Twenty20 competition, in Dubai at the end of March, for the second year running as part of their preparations for the new county season. The club will also send groups of players to India and South Africa for specialised coaching sessions.Durham’s second XI coach Jon Lewis will accompany Gareth Breese, Mark Stoneman, Tim Raglan, Ryan Buckley and James Weighall to the Global Cricket School in India in February; while Mitchell Claydon, Stephen Harmison, Liam Plunkett, Chris Rushworth, Ben Stokes, Josh Bousefield and Usman Arshad will go to South Africa for outdoor practice with bowling coach Alan Walker and limited-overs captain Dale Benkenstein.”Our tours to Dubai have been really successful in previous years and have proved to be an effective way to continue our pre-season preparation in outdoor conditions,” Durham’s head coach Geoff Cook said. “It’s important for the bowlers to get as much outdoor practice as possible before the start of the season which is why we’ve also taken the opportunity to send groups to India and South Africa.”

Sri Lanka players receive outstanding dues

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Sri Lanka Cricket has said it has paid its cricketers their outstanding dues, which had been pending since last year’s World Cup

ESPNcricinfo staff15-Mar-2012Sri Lanka Cricket has said it has paid its cricketers their outstanding dues, which had been pending since the 2011 World Cup. The ICC had paid 42.36% of the dues to the players directly, in December, out of the participation fee due to Sri Lanka from the tournament. SLC announced in February that it would pay the remainder of the dues by the end of the month, after the state-owned Bank of Ceylon agreed to release 600 million rupees (approx US$5.07 million) to the board, following discussions with sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage.The board now said the players “have been paid all their dues in full up to date.””We extend our sincere thanks to the sports minister Mahindananda Aluthgamage and the secretary, ministry of sports for assisting Sri Lanka Cricket to source these funds at this very difficult time in order to pay our players,” a board release said.The Sri Lanka players had been owed around $4.3 million by SLC in December before the ICC paid part of their dues. The board is in the middle of a major financial crunch after having run up debts of $32.5 million to finance the building of two international stadiums in Hambantota and Pallekele, and to renovate the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, for the World Cup.Edited by Dustin Silgardo

Pat Cummins begins comeback bid

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Pat Cummins, the Australia fast bowler, will join the Under-19 squad for the quadrangular series in Townsville beginning next week

ESPNcricinfo staff30-Mar-2012Pat Cummins, the Australia fast bowler, will join the Under-19 squad for the quadrangular series in Townsville beginning next week, as he bids to return to the senior national team after a long injury lay-off due to a bone stress injury in his foot.”Pat is at an advanced stage of his rehabilitation and we feel he will benefit from bowling in a competitive environment,” CA physiotherapist Alex Kountouris said. “He’ll be on a restricted program and is being taken to Townsville so we can continue his progression and introduce some competition time.”He won’t play in every match or bowl his full allocation of overs, but will undertake a program that will allow us to carefully manage his involvement in the squad’s training and matches.”Cummins, 18, made an outstanding start to his Test career in November 2011, when he took seven wickets and was Man of the Match on debut in Australia’s victory over South Africa in Johannesburg. However, he hasn’t played a match since then and was ruled out of Australia’s entire home summer of internationals as well as the ongoing tour of the West Indies due to a heel injury.The quadrangular series will be played by U-19 teams from Australia, England, India and New Zealand between April 5 and 15. It will be used as a warm-up up event ahead of the U-19 World Cup in Queensland in August.