Offspinner Harbhajan Singh and batsman Ajinkya Rahane will join their respective Ranji Trophy teams for the next group game that begins on Saturday

ESPNcricinfo staff05-Dec-2012Offspinner Harbhajan Singh and batsman Ajinkya Rahane, who have been part of India’s squad for all three Tests against England, will join their respective Ranji Trophy teams for the next group game that begins on Saturday. The third Test of the four-match India-England series is currently underway in Kolkata, but neither player is part of the Indian XI.This decision is in line with the policy adopted by the India team management over the past four seasons, by which as many players as possible are released from the national squad for Ranji games during home series’. This is done with a view to help the reserves remain match-fit.Harbhajan and Rahane will fly from Kolkata to Mumbai on Thursday, to join Punjab and Mumbai – these teams will play each other at the Wankhede Stadium in the next round of Ranji games. The pair, along with most of the other India regulars, featured in the season-opening round of the Ranji Trophy matches from November 2. While Harbhajan could make little impact with the ball as the Punjab captain against Hyderabad, Rahane scored 129 and 84 for Mumbai against Railways.The players’ availability will be a major boost for both teams, in particular Mumbai; Punjab, with young batsman Mandeep Singh at the helm, have already assured themselves of a place in the knockouts with four victories in five matches, but Mumbai are yet to win this season.Harbhajan, having recovered from a viral infection, featured in India’s humiliating ten-wicket defeat against England at the Wankhede Stadium. Rahane is yet to play in the Test series. The final game of the four-Test series will begin in Nagpur on December 13.

Kane Williamson struck a brilliant unbeaten 145 to carry New Zealand to a competitive 279 for 8 in Kimberley

The Report by Alex Winter22-Jan-2013
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsNathan McCullum was inspired in the field and took the crucial wicket of Colin Ingram•Associated Press

South Africa have so often been the makers of their own downfall and five run outs scuppered their chase in Kimberley as New Zealand secured their first series win in any format in South Africa. One of the lights that can lead them out of this tough period – Kane Williamson – produced a magnificent unbeaten century that deserved to win a series. New Zealand’s tenacity in the field ensured it did.Graeme Smith, Faf du Plessis, David Miller, Rory Kleinveldt and Farhaan Behardien were all run out as South Africa’s chase crumbled from a comfortable position of 167 for 1 in the 31st over. It equalled the record for the most run outs in an ODI innings and contributed to a calamitous collapse of 9 for 85.It was unimaginable that the current New Zealand team could be the group to win the country’s first series in South Africa, but after being humiliated in the Test series they have a remarkable achievement to take home.This second win was set up by the best batting performance of the tour: a career-best international score by Williamson. His unbeaten 145 not out was superbly paced. He negotiated a nervous opening having come to the crease in the third over at 0 for 1, then accelerated in a hundred partnership with Grant Elliott, rebuilt after New Zealand had endured a collapse of their own, before providing a final punch that produced a competitive target.But competitive is all the target appeared on a balmy evening with a flat, hard, grassless wicket. South Africa were on course as Graeme Smith and Colin Ingram added 129 in 22 overs.New Zealand craved a breakthrough, wishing for any of the several chances they spurned in the first ODI, and were suddenly gifted a path back into the match. It was James Franklin – who brought New Zealand home in Paarl – that began the feast of run-outs with a slide to save Ingram’s back cut at third man. His return was pint-point over the bails and a sluggish Smith was short diving in for a third run.Faf du Plessis – standing in as captain with AB de Villiers suspended – then defended Franklin into the off side and eagerly considered a single. He was rightly sent back by Ingram and was a little slow to turn, allowing enough time for Nathan McCullum to swoop in from cover and hit direct with a dive.It was part of a fine display in the field from McCullum. He held Robin Peterson with a diving catch at extra cover after he had squeezed the run rate with his off spin, forcing Ingram to try to hit over the top and find mid-off. It was a far cry from his first over which had been taken for 17.Further run outs came as Kleinveldt got his bat stuck in the ground a foot short of the popping crease as Martin Guptill threw down the stumps from midwicket. More lethargic running saw Behardien – on his ODI debut – beaten from the midwicket boundary. A little earlier, David Miller – a dangerous threat even as the required rate surged – was short of his ground backing up.New Zealand had seized their chance in the field and backed up an outstanding innings from Williamson. Quality of timing is paramount for him, a diminutive figure with a limited range of strokes, but he found his touch. He shuffled across his stumps to work length balls on off stump through the leg side, put away almost anything overpitched and played the spinners well – getting deep in his crease to pull boundaries against du Plessis and using his feet well too.Twice he skipped down to lift Peterson wide of long-on, the second occasion taking him to 99; a single backward of point brought up his third ODI hundred and the first against major opposition. He added 127 in 128 balls with Grant Elliott to earn New Zealand’s first century stand of the tour. It was born out of a careful opening as just 19 came off the first ten overs; a cautious attitude understandable given previous premature collapses.But having played watchfully, New Zealand progressed. Williamson was the chief instigator of the 62 runs that were scored in the first 10 overs outside the Powerplay. The innings had been running to plan with a platform in place and Brendon McCullum arriving at No. 5 with a short period to explode. But he only managed to do so three times, the best of which a straight six over Morne Morkel’s head having run down the wicket. But doing so again, McCullum swung and missed and lost his leg stump. It was a waste with 12 overs of the innings left.Colin Munro and Franklin then fell within eight balls and New Zealand looked out of power and likely to fail to take full advantage of their position. But Williamson continued to steer the innings and his efforts were ultimately rewarded.

Bill Lawry has remembered his friend and colleague Tony Greig as a great family man and a gentleman

Brydon Coverdale29-Dec-2012Bill Lawry has remembered his friend and colleague Tony Greig as a great family man and a gentleman, and said he and Greig never shared a cross word outside the commentary box despite their memorable on-air banter. Lawry and Greig commentated together for 33 years on Channel Nine, a union that ended this summer when Greig was receiving treatment for lung cancer, and Lawry said he was “shattered” to hear that Greig had died aged 66.”Most of all to me he was a family man,” Lawry told ESPNcricinfo. “His wife Vivian is charming and he has four great kids. Every Test match in Sydney, the whole commentary team plus touring players, umpires, touring officials were all invited out to Tony Greig’s place and that will be greatly missed next week. That’s going to make the Sydney Test match very, very sad indeed. We’re shattered for his wife Vivian and his four children because we’ve become close over the last 33 years.”The repartee between Greig and Lawry became an iconic part of the Australian summer throughout the 1980s and 1990s and continued over the past decade. It was a relationship that was sparked when Greig joined the Channel Nine commentary team fresh from two years of captaining the World XI during World Series Cricket, and Lawry remembers well their first meeting as fellow commentators.”He walked in and said ‘you’re the Australian captain that lost 4-0 in South Africa aren’t you?’ And he beamed. And I said ‘yeah, and you’re the guy who gave up the captaincy of England for money’. I think from that moment on we were great friends because there was always a bit of banter. He won most times because his knowledge of cricket was far better than mine. He’s a little bit like Ian Chappell, he was a bit of a cricket vegetable. He remembered almost everything that happened, and I’m a bit more airy-fairy than those two.”The differences between Lawry and Greig made them compelling when on air together, and it was producer David Hill who first saw the potential of the Lawry-Greig team.”We had different views on cricket,” Lawry said. “Tony’s views were sometimes completely different to mine. But the point was we could have a bit of a challenge on air and as soon as we walked away we were the best of friends. We didn’t have a cross word in the 33 years that I’ve known him. He was just a gentleman.”He was fantastic because if you threw something out there he’d come in boots and all. There was no holding back with Tony. We laugh because originally he was well known for putting the key in the big cracks while doing the pitch report but his knowledge of cricket was outstanding. His record as an all-round cricketer was excellent and if you made a blue about something he was right on to you. He was always challenging but always a great friend.”On tour together as commentators, Greig would usually drive Lawry to the grounds – “he was a bit fast in the car,” Lawry remembers – and they spent most nights having dinner together. In Hobart, the Channel Nine commentators would traditionally get together for a meal at Greig’s favourite fish restaurant, and Lawry said the tradition was not continued during the recent Bellerive Oval Test.”He loved the deep sea trevalla, battered. We always had that,” Lawry said. “This year we didn’t go because it wouldn’t have been the same without Tony there.”It won’t be the same in Sydney next week, either, where Lawry was hoping to see Greig for the first time since last summer.”I was saying to Steve Crawley, our head of sport, yesterday I’ve really missed Tony this year and I’ll be glad to see him in Sydney,” Lawry said. “Of course I’m not going to see him and that’s very sad.”

Parvez Rasool, the Jammu and Kashmir allrounder, is set to join Pune Warriors for IPL 2013

ESPNcricinfo staff14-Feb-2013Parvez Rasool, the Jammu and Kashmir allrounder, is set to join Pune Warriors for IPL 2013. Rasool was in the spotlight earlier this week, when he bagged seven wickets against the touring Australians. He will be the first player from Jammu and Kashmir to play in the league.The formalities are yet to be completed but the franchise is in the process of signing Rasool, a Warriors official confirmed.Rasool said Warriors were not the only IPL team to contact him, but they had been in touch with him even before that tour match. “A few franchises approached me but it was Pune who approached me first. So it was an ethical decision to join them as they had shown interest much before the Australia match happened,” Rasool told . “I am very excited and it is an honour to play in the IPL and become the first cricketer from the valley to achieve this feat.”Twenty-four-year-old Rasool had an impressive 2012-13 Ranji season too, leading both the bowling and batting charts for Jammu and Kashmir; his 594 runs from seven games came at an average of 54, while his 33 wickets came at 18.09 apiece.He is looking forward to drawing on the knowledge of the international players at the IPL, he said, to further lift his game. “It is a dream come true for me that I will be interacting with Michael Clarke. Also having Yuvi [Yuvraj Singh] will be a bonus. I have just started my journey in top-flight cricket, and this stint with Pune will only help me grow. I hope that I will be able soak in all the information that I can get from our coach Allan Donald too.”

David Hussey waited until the last Sheffield Shield round to make his first century of the season but Victoria still finished a rain-interrupted day trailing Tasmania

ESPNcricinfo staff16-Mar-2013
ScorecardDavid Hussey waited until the last Sheffield Shield round to make his first century of the season but Victoria still finished a rain-interrupted day trailing Tasmania.Victoria fell 11 runs short of Tasmania’s first innings total despite Hussey’s innings, and the hosts’ reply was again underpinned by a strong opening stand between Jordan Silk and Mark Cosgrove.Cosgrove perished to Fawad Ahmed for 50, but Silk continued in the company of Alex Doolan, leaving Tasmania in a position to set a target on the final day, provided the weather is kind. Both sides require an outright result, the Bushrangers to host the final and the Tigers to have a chance of reaching it.

Bowled out for 96 in 46.2 overs, Yorkshire then watched as Chris Nash stroked a pleasing 80 off 87 balls

Paul Edwards at Headingley10-Apr-2013
ScorecardYorkshire’s cricketers were probably full of new-season optimism this morning and losing the toss will surely not have shaken their confidence. By close of play, however, Andrew Gale’s players had received a bracing dollop of what Division One cricket is all about.Bowled out for 96 in 46.2 overs, Yorkshire then watched as Chris Nash stroked a pleasing 80 off 87 balls. When bad light ended play 19 overs early, Sussex were already in the throes of establishing a strong position, albeit that Ryan Sidebottom had taken all three wickets to fall in a predictably unsparing display.”Every attempt is a wholly new start,” wrote TS Eliot in East Coker, and on few days in the sporting calendar does the sentiment seem more true than the first day of the County Championship season. It is nearly seven months since the players left the field in September and a lot of improvements can be made in that time. Spring beckons, albeit a chilly one this year, and at 10.45am on the first morning of the four-day season everyone is top of the averages. (“Bottom of ’em too,” the curmudgeons might reply but how many cricketers listen to them in April?)Andrew Gale made just 2 as Yorkshire’s top four managed 13 between them•PA Photos

In the many interviews they conducted before the start of the season Jason Gillespie and Gale were at pains to say how tough they expected the top tier of English cricket to be. It took less than a session for the Yorkshire hierarchy to be reassured that their judgement was spot on. Facing an attack that offered them very little loose stuff, the much-vaunted Yorkshire top-order, albeit lacking Joe Root, crumbled away like fresh Wensleydale on a wicket which justified Ed Joyce’s decision to bat first. Poorly placed on 40 for 4 at lunch, the batsmen could only add a further 56 in the afternoon session, even on a wicket which eased a tad.The star of the day was the ex-Surrey seamer Chris Jordan. Apparently surplus to requirements at The Oval, Jordan bowled with pace and accuracy to take 6 for 48, the best Championship figures of his career. His first victim, Gale, was a leg-side strangle but his others owed little to luck and much more to Jordan’s admirable rectitude, which proved too much for the techniques of some home players. Gale himself said that he had expected his batsmen to “stand up” and described some of the dismissals as “soft”Perhaps the skipper was thinking of Alex Lees, who battled with immense composure for 79 minutes and 51 balls before chasing a rather wide-ish one from Jordan. More likely he was referring to Jonny Bairstow, who made 29 before edging an attempted pull off James Anyon three overs after lunch. That gave the Sussex new-ball bowler a deserved second success and it began a collapse that saw the last six Yorkshire wickets tumble for 38 runs in less than 14 overs. Jordan made hay and the sun shone. Azeem Rafiq made an inventive 23 and was the last man out but none of bottom half of the home line-up could stay with him.When Sussex batted Nash took five boundaries off seven Jack Brooks deliveries and you could almost hear some of the home spectators muttering about “bloody headbands”. Sidebottom, whose coiffure has also seemed to need constraint at times, cheered the Yorkshire faithful a little more by trapping Luke Wells for 2 and then having Michael Yardy caught behind by Bairstow for 14, although the former skipper had added 76 with Nash by the time that wicket fell. Nash nicked a good ball to Bairstow just before play was halted but Yorkshire are already in need of more wickets early on Thursday. Gale’s men will not be pleased to be reminded that the full Eliot quotation reads: “Every beginning is a wholly new start and a different kind of failure.”

Kolkata Knight Riders kept their 100% record of successfully chasing totals under 120 intact as they triumphed at their second home in Ranchi

Firdose Moonda12-May-2013

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details Jacques Kallis’ 41 helped steer Kolkata Knight Riders to the target•BCCI

Kolkata Knight Riders kept their 100% record of successfully chasing totals under 120 intact as they triumphed at their second home in Ranchi. Their bowlers were largely responsible for keeping them in the competition, having restricted Royal Challengers to their lowest total in a first innings of an IPL match in India.Through good lengths and variation, they ensured the batsmen would not have to toil as much as Royal Challengers’ troops did. They laboured through the slowest Powerplay in this year’s tournament, with only 22 runs from the first six overs and limped to their slowest century of 2013, off 102 balls. They managed just seven boundaries in their innings, their second lowest count in the tournament’s history.Knight Riders’ selection of Sachithra Senanayake proved a shrewd move on a slow surface, as he and L Balaji made run-scoring difficult upfront. Chesteshwar Pujara was dismissed for 5 as he tried to hit out, but Chris Gayle managed his frustrations well.His only four came from an edge past first slip and he had little respite, besides Ryan ten Doeschate’s sole over, in which Virat Kohli and Gayle took 14 runs of it. Kohli, however, didn’t last long, playing on off Jacques Kallis for 17.Four boundary-less overs followed before Gayle’s vigil was broken. He went forward to defend the first ball of Sunil Narine’s second over, but it turned past the outside edge, and he was stumped with his toe right on the line.Gayle was Narine’s first scalp. Saurabh Tiwary, Ravi Rampaul and Abhimanyu Mithun were the other three which took the West Indian to the top of the wicket-charts with 22 to his name. He tied Royal Challengers up at the end of their innings, after Balaji got rid of a threatening looking AB de Villiers.The South African one-day captain managed a paddle and a loft over extra cover before he was caught behind, trying to tickle the ball fine. Had de Villiers lasted into the last four overs, Royal Challengers may have been able to eye a total over 130, but they had to settle for a below-par 115 for 9.Despite the sluggish surface, they needed a better bowling effort than their attack has seemed capable of producing this season. Ravi Rampaul gave them some hope when he had Manvinder Bisla caught at point off the second ball. He should have accounted for Kallis too, but Mithun badly misjudged the catch at fine leg, running in before realising he had underestimated the strength of the shot.Kallis capitalised on his let off and anchored the chase almost to the end. The required run rate hovered around a run-a-ball throughout, but Royal Challengers could not build any pressure. Gautam Gambhir took three fours off a Mithun over that was peppered with generously short balls, and Murali Kartik conceded boundaries when he tossed it up.Kallis and Manoj Tiwary worked the ball around, and even though both were dismissed at the twilight of the match, they had done enough. Ryan ten Doeschate hit the winning runs to make qualifying for the playoffs an uphill battle for Royal Challengers in their remaining matches.

Steven Davies fired a career-best 127 not out as Surrey claimed a convincing nine-wicket win over reigning champions Hampshire at The Oval. It was Davies’ sixth one-day hundred, coming In 81 balls.

06-May-2013
ScorecardSteven Davies made his sixth one-day hundred•PA Photos

Steven Davies fired a career-best 127 not out as Surrey claimed a convincing nine-wicket win over reigning champions Hampshire at The Oval. It was Davies’ sixth one-day hundred, coming in 81 balls.He and opening partner Graeme Smith, who scored a quick-fire 74 from 75 balls, shared an opening stand of 162 in 21 overs after Zafar Ansari helped to restrict Hampshire to a modest 228 all out with a career-best of 4 for 46.Surrey already had 43 on the board by the end of the fourth over of their reply, with Davies warming up by pulling James Tomlinson for six. Nine overs later, Davies simultaneously took the hosts to three figures in addition to bringing up his half-century, which came off 43 deliveries.Smith, meanwhile, eased to a 36-ball fifty in the fifteenth over before he was caught at wide long-on off Liam Dawson six overs later for 74, though not before lifting Hamza Riazuddin back over his head for six.Davies moved to 98 with a second six off Michael Carberry and in the 26th over, brought up his hundred, continuing his fine start to the season, with ten fours and three sixes.
Vikram Solanki also chipped in with an unbeaten 22 as he and Davies saw Surrey home with more than eight overs to spare.Earlier, after winning the toss, Hampshire were indebted to Sean Ervine’s 63 from 70 deliveries for their total of 228. James Vince and Jimmy Adams overcame the departure of Carberry, to a thin edge off Jade Dernbach, to give the innings some early impetus.But after Vince was caught at deep square leg off Jon Lewis in the ninth over, the visitors became bogged down against the spin of Ansari and Gareth Batty.With George Bailey and Adams both holing out to long-on, Hampshire were 89 for 4 in the 18th over. Ervine then took charge, initially by bringing up the hundred for the Royals with a straight six off Gary Keedy.Dawson and Ervine added 54 in nine overs for the fifth wicket before a superb catch, at short extra cover by Smith off Ansari, drew a line under a resourceful knock of 36 from Dawson. Ansari struck again when Adam Wheater was stumped two overs later, though not before Ervine, on 31, was dropped off a bottom edge off Batty.After Chris Wood had been run out at the non-striker’s end by Davies, Ervine brought up a 61-ball half-century with the second of two successive fours through midwicket off Dernbach. But Hampshire’s innings slipped away after Ervine, looking to launch Ansari into the pavilion, was bowled.