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.

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.

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 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 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, 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.

Ireland Women begin their new season in a new division this weekend. They were promoted to Division three of the ECB County Championship last season.

ESPNcricinfo staff01-May-2012Ireland Women begin their new season in a new division this weekend. They were promoted to Division Three of the ECB County Championship last season.The new campaign begins against Leicestershire at Bardon Hill and on Monday they play Huntingdon & Cambridgeshire on Monday at Sawston.Head coach Jeremy Bray is hopeful of another successful season: “The squad has got a great blend of youth and experience and I’m sure will be rewarded for all their efforts during the close season.”It’s an exciting time for Irish cricket in general and you can feel there’s a real buzz about the game at the minute. I’m sure it won’t be too long before the women are emulating the men’s team in terms of results.”2012 Squad
Isobel Joyce (capt), Clodagh Conway, Laura Delany, Emma Flanagan, Cecelia Joyce, Shauna Kavanagh, Louise McCarthy, Rebecca Rolfe, Melissa Scott Hayward, Clare Shillington, Alison Smith, Elena Tice, Mary Waldron

The BCCI has invited Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf to watch the final of the IPL to be played in Chennai on May 27

ESPNcricinfo staff20-May-2012The BCCI has invited Pakistan Cricket Board chairman Zaka Ashraf to watch the IPL final to be played in Chennai on May 27. Ashraf confirmed that he received the invitation from the Indian board a few days ago.”I see the invitation as another positive step forward in further normalising bilateral cricket ties between the two countries,” Ashraf said. “The invitation will allow me to undertake a two-day visit to India and I plan to use this visit to have informal discussions with the Indian board officials regarding enhancing chances of restoring bilateral cricket ties.”Recently, the BCCI had announced that it had no objection to the participation of Pakistan T20 title-holders Sialkot Stallions in this year’s Champions League Twenty20 tournament, a move welcomed by the PCB.”We want to play India regularly in bilateral matches and we are willing to talk to them at every level to achieve this,” Ashraf said. “I will be speaking to them on this when I go to India.”The PCB had been pushing for the inclusion of a side from Pakistan, the only major Test-playing nation to not have had teams in the CLT20 since its inception. Sialkot were invited to the inaugural edition of the tournament towards the end of 2008, but it was put off after the terror attacks in Mumbai in November that year.Those attacks strained political relations between India and Pakistan and, subsequently, bilateral cricketing ties between the two countries were severed. Pakistan players – with the exception of Azhar Mahmood (who also has a British passport) this year – have not been a part of the IPL since.

Surrey’s last-ball defeat at Essex at least allowed the healing process to begin in their first match since the death of Tom Maynard.

Alan Gardner at Chelmsford22-Jun-2012
ScorecardFor Surrey this match against Essex allowed the healing process to begin. Touched by tragedy once again with the death of Tom Maynard in an accident on the London underground, their young squad put the events of Monday behind them and fought every inch of the way before they lost to the last ball of the game. The result did not matter: at a time of dislocating sadness, the cricket was comfortingly familiar.Surrey’s game against Hampshire on Wednesday had been postponed to allow the club to come to terms with their loss. This was their first outing without the popular Maynard, a player who was expected to follow in his father Matthew’s footsteps, as an England international and as a product of Glamorgan, a reminder of the ECB’s silent W.Chris Adams, Surrey’s cricket manager, had said that his team needed to get back into the routine of playing after the numbing news of Maynard’s death. The 23-year-old batsman was found dead on the tracks near Wimbledon Park tube station on Monday, robbing Surrey of a young star, the Maynard family of a son. Speaking after the match, Adams praised the response of his players on a raw night.”It’s been a desperately difficult week for them,” he said. “I don’t think any of us expected to not be highly emotional today. It was a lovely gesture by Essex to start the day off with the wreath, which meant that the two lads walking out to bat were visibly upset and so were the people in the dugout.”I can be proud of the lads, they have shown amazing character through the week – I think just turning up today was enough for me. They did it and got through it and we nearly won a game. This is a very difficult place to come and win anyway, under any circumstance, but after a week like that to get so close gives me great heart.”We came back in yesterday to The Oval, and we all expected that to be quite difficult. It was the first time back in the changing rooms, first time the lads will have seen Tom’s locker and there were some very, very sombre and quiet moments.”I think the best counselling that they will have in the whole process is tonight, is getting out there, back in the arena and doing what they do best, which is playing cricket. There will be a lot of proud people, supporters, a family back in Wales – I know, as soon as the game was over I had a text from Matthew to say so.”We’ll move on, and our cause for the rest of the season is defined: whatever we do, it will be to make sure that Tom Maynard is looking down, very proud of what he stood for, the team stands for and how we want to play our cricket.”Chris Tremlett, the England fast bowler, making his first appearance of the season for Surrey’s first XI, took 3 for 19 off his four overs but James Franklin’s 63 from 51 balls and some late hitting from Tim Phillips were decisive as Essex secured a dramatic victory. In scoring 26 off the final 11 deliveries Essex triumphed by a fine margin for the third successive evening, in exhilarating fashion. It was, if nothing more, a fleeting, enthralling distraction from real life.A minute’s silence preceded the start, with the teams lined up on the outfield wearing black armbands. Several Surrey players were visibly affected by the emotion of the occasion and Jason Roy, who walked off with a consoling arm around his shoulder, had to immediately don his helmet and return to the middle to open the batting.He hit the first ball he faced straight back down the ground for four, following it up with several further boundaries in a highly charged 36 off 20 balls before holing out to deep midwicket. On being dismissed, he looked to the heavens before dragging himself from the pitch on heavy legs. Twenty20 is often a game of frivolity but Roy’s reaction spoke of weightier matters on his mind.Rory Hamilton-Brown, the Surrey captain and Maynard’s flatmate, had been given compassionate leave – though he was present for the minute’s silence – with Gareth Batty leading the side. There was an added poignancy to the commonplace sight of the players in a huddle on the outfield, missing as it was Surrey’s No. 55, as well as Hamilton-Brown and the England international Jade Dernbach, a close friend of Maynard’s. “It’s been the most difficult week of my career certainly,” Batty said at the toss. “It’s bringing the club together. Our thoughts are with his mother and father down in Wales.”The loss of a team-mate in such circumstances is, mercifully, not something that many players will have to deal with in their careers. Stuart Meaker, the Surrey fast bowler, had tweeted after being called into the England squad for the third ODI against West Indies that he and Dernbach had “been given a chance to play this Friday for the memory of Tommy Maynard. I hope we can do him proud.” Rain at Headingley denied Meaker and Dernbach such an opportunity but Meaker made the 200-mile journey to Chelmsford in time to feature in this fixture.He celebrated with a pump of both arms after bowling James Foster with his third ball and for while, as Essex struggled against the pace of Meaker and Tremlett, slipping from 93 for 3 to 119 for 7 in 28 balls, it looked as if Surrey might secure the win they almost visibly strained for. It wasn’t quite to be. But, on this occasion, there was something more important to play for.

Yorkshire reached their first T20 Finals Day with a 29-run win over Worcestershire, inspired by Joe Root’s maiden Twenty20 half-century

Alan Gardner25-Jul-2012
ScorecardJoe Root hit 65 and then pulled off an excellent piece of fielding as Yorkshire reached their first Finals Day•Getty Images

Yorkshire reached their first T20 Finals Day with a 29-run win over Worcestershire, inspired by Joe Root’s maiden Twenty20 half-century, not to mention an impudent piece of fielding on the deep midwicket boundary that brought a boisterous Headingley crowd to their feet. Root also opened the bowling – admittedly to slightly less spectacular effect – in a display that will have again given the England selectors a tug on the sleeve.Phil Hughes’ unorthodox power and placement helped keep Worcestershire in the game but his unbeaten 80 was not enough, as fellow Australia international Mitchell Starc returned to keep a lid on the final overs, finishing with 3 for 24 from his allocation. In the face-off between the tournament’s leading run-scorer and its leading wicket-taker, Starc was the victor on points.After Hampshire’s dramatic victory over Nottinghamshire later on Wednesday, Yorkshire were drawn against big-hitting Sussex for what promises to be an explosive semi-final encounter between the North and South Group winners on August 25.Worcestershire, who were also aiming to reach Finals Day for the first time, kept pace with the Yorkshire par score but were lacking the blast of nitrous oxide provided by the batting of David Miller and Gary Ballance, who hammered 82 from the last five overs earlier in the day. A similar power-up was not forthcoming from the visitors’ middle order, despite forceful twenties from James Cameron and Gareth Andrew.The former was sent on his way by Root – though his name won’t appear on the scorecards. Having hoisted Rich Pyrah high into the outfield, Cameron may have been expecting to record his second six; but Root, running round from long-on, demonstrated quick-thinking to go with his quick feet, catching the ball, steadying himself in front of the rope and then tossing it back to Miller as his momentum took him out of bounds.The third umpire was consulted, as a matter of course, but both Root and his team-mates knew he had pulled off a piece of fielding that is no less exhilarating now that T20 has made it a more common sight. “The cameras are here aren’t they, so you’ve got to make it look good,” Root said, over his on-pitch mic.Root’s contribution with the bat was even more important, if a little less showy. He is an accomplished strokeplayer in the classical mould, though he repeatedly turned to the reverse sweep in a largely unsuccessful attempt to show he could play the peacock too. Perhaps hitting three of his four first-class sixes in a superb innings of 222 not out at West End earlier this month has convinced him to broaden his batting horizons.His runs were scored all around the wicket, though his first boundary came via an edge between keeper and slip. He could – possibly should – have been dismissed on 40, when a reverse dab against Brett D’Oliveira looped off the top edge to Andrew’s left at short third man but the fielder went at it one-handed and only succeeded in fisting the ball to the boundary. Two overs later, Root drove Aneesh Kapil behind square to reach his fifty, from 36 balls, and he was in full flow against Worcestershire’s England Under-19 allrounder, cutting, driving and pulling three more boundaries off successive deliveries before spooning a slog straight up to be caught and bowled.Root, appropriately, had anchored Yorkshire, as Worcestershire chipped away early on. Yorkshire have twice broken the club record for opening stands in T20 this season but Andrew Gale and Phil Jaques combined to less sparkling effect in the first over of the innings, with the Australian run-out off a wide. Jack Shantry’s delivery swung down the leg side, before deflecting away off the wicketkeeper Ben Scott’s pads, and Jaques was three-quarters of the way down before it became apparent that Gale was not for haring.The Yorkshire captain had missed a month of cricket with a hip injury, so was perhaps just feeling a bit ginger early on. After scoring three singles off his first eight balls, he crashed five fours off his next ten, taking 16 off a Shantry over before chipping Daryl Mitchell’s extremely slow medium-pace back to the bowler. Worcestershire’s captain also accounted for Jonny Bairstow, whose mighty bash wasn’t quite mighty enough to clear long-on and at the halfway stage Yorkshire were 83 for 3, behind the rate on a good pitch.Kapil’s costly over, though it saw off Root, was the trigger for a run rush that saw Yorkshire pile on 104 from the last seven. Miller hit the first six of the innings from the last ball of the 16th over, slog-sweeping Moeen Ali into the stands, and Ballance cracked the next ball, from Shantry, over cover for six more. Miller then smacked sixes over long-on and long-off, before pulling a flat missile through midwicket for four more, progressing to a 23-ball fifty in the following over before miscuing a heave at David Lucas.Shantry finished with 0 for 46 from three overs but Lucas, bowling the final over, was not to be spared either. A single off the first ball brought Ballance on strike, red-faced but cool at the crease, and he cleared the ropes four more times – a bottom-handed club over wide long-on; a flat swipe through midwicket; a stand-and-deliver punch down the ground; and a wristy flick over deep backward square leg – to lift Yorkshire to their highest total in this year’s FLt20 and just one run shy of their best in T20.Root, a slight 21-year-old, is not yet the man for such power-hitting but his all-round abilities meant he was given the new ball as Yorkshire started with an over off offspin. Root went for 10, though both of Moeen’s boundaries – an inside edge past the stumps and a paddle past the diving Moin Ashraf at short fine leg – could have resulted in wickets. Starc then struck in the second over, Vikram Solanki pinned lbw despite the ball looking a touch high, to bring Hughes to the middle.His first boundary was a six down the ground but a succession of partners could not match his efforts. As Root showed, it isn’t over until it’s over the rope – and neither could Worcestershire get over the line.