All posts by csb10.top

Somerset will be looking for some early wickets in the morning in their vital relegation match at Grace Road where Leicestershire will resume seventeen runs ahead with five first inning wickets still to fall.After being put into bat by their hosts the Cidermen got off to another disappointing start losing Matt Wood(1) and Jamie Cox (4) cheaply, both falling LBW to Indian Test bowler Javagal Srinath.Mike Burns who has been struggling with a knee injury then played probably his best innings of the season, and despite wickets falling steadily around him remained steadfast at the other end.The eighth wicket partnership of 46 between Burns and Matt Bulbeck (22) was the best of the innings, but when Somerset were all out for 189 in mid afternoon the all rounder was unbeaten on 97, a tantalizing three runs short of what would have been a richly deserved century.When Leicestershire batted they got off to a solid start before Ian Sutcliffe was LBW to Bulbeck with the score on 41.Darren Maddy and Tim Ward then took the score onto 130 when Pete Trego accounted for Maddy after he had made 36.Ashley Wright and Ward took Leicester into the lead but with the score on 190 Wright was bowled by Bulbeck.There was further joy for the visitors just before the close of play when Trego struck again to remove Ward, and Leicestershire finished the day on 207 for 5.After the close of play Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "This was a tough day for us after we didn’t bat as well as we should have. However we pulled it round a bit in the last twenty minutes and with three days left we will try to capitalise on the situation first thing in the morning."He paid tribute to Mike Burns innings and said: "He was brilliant, and I think that is one of the better innings that I have seen him play. When he started it was seaming around but he took his time and played responsibly which is exactly what was needed."Regarding the bowling he said: "We didn’t get a great start, but we got better and in the end our patience paid off and we were rewarded with some wickets."

Put aside pot smoking in South Africa, player revolt in the West Indies or rows over who is entitled to a share of cars won in Australia, the players’ revolt of 2002 is the darkest day in New Zealand cricket history.Even bomb blasts and the aftermath in Sri Lanka in 1993 pale in comparison to the body blow that has struck the game in this country as a result of the intransigent stance adopted by the players in their confrontation with New Zealand Cricket.It is ironic that at a time when the New Zealand game has reached a position of prominence on the world scene, largely as the result of corrective procedures inflicted on the game in the fall-out from the centenary summer of 1994/95, the foundations developed are being chipped away by the players who have already benefited most from the increased stature of the game.It is doubly ironic that the man at the helm of the game here, Martin Snedden was himself a players’ advocate during the late-1980s.However, New Zealand cricket changed today. It changed in a way that has never affected a sport in this country before.A wedge has been driven between players, administrators and the cricket public that may never be healed.Certainly, the players, should they ever play for New Zealand again, will find themselves on the receiving end of a level of criticism the likes of which they have never experienced before.Cricket in this country has, in a sense, been Americanised with a level of industrial activity that can only be seen as the forerunner of what is to come in other sports.It may be that the result of this stand-off sees New Zealand fielding a side well below strength in the forthcoming internationals. And it may be several years before the lofty status of third-ranked side in the world is achieved again.And even if the break-up of the Players’ Association occurs with some players opting to accept whatever offers they can, they also leave themselves open to further criticism.The ball game has changed forever.The fortunate thing for the longer term good of the game, which has recovered from disaster before in New Zealand, is that the infrastructure is in place to help younger players develop.One of the benefits of the re-structuring of the New Zealand game has been the development of the High Performance Centre at Lincoln University. Its presence may be the most vital piece of strategic worth in the history of the game here as it becomes the focal point in re-establishing New Zealand’s international game.It appears that the sticking point in the negotiations, after all the rhetoric, was the share of the NZC financial pool that the players are entitled to. They want more, in line with other countries, notably Australia.NZC, having put in place their programme, say they can’t afford it.The players want more disclosure on the last year of NZC’s involvement in the International Cricket Council (ICC) payout from Global Cricket Corporation which has the ICC television rights until 2007.NZC have a four-year plan as the base of their finances, the players want to know more about the fifth year.Perhaps they are just unfortunate that the income from the fifth year will be outside the contract period for some of them.Plenty of past New Zealand players could reflect similarly that the passage of time had also denied them financial rewards.But that is the way the cricket cookie crumbles.Equally, it would be irresponsible of NZC to commit to contractural arrangements beyond which they have some expectation or control.No matter what else may happen in this whole saga, November 5, 2002 will serve as the greatest day of shame in the game in New Zealand.DISCLAIMER: The views expressed herein are not necessarily those of New Zealand Cricket.

Day 2 of 3Stone:
Staffordshire 367-7 and 185-5dec (GF Archer 80*)
Northumberland 182 (D Follett 7-67) and 32-0Bedford:
Lincolnshire 257 and 144-6
Bedfordshire 277-5dec (DJ Roberts 126*, JA Knott 64*)Finchanpstead:
Berkshire 231 and 130-8.
Herefordshire 432-7 (I Dawood 98, CW Burroughs 96*, HV Patel 93, MC McCagne67*)Dean Park:
Dorset 178 and 152-4 (D Cowley 67*)
Devon 361-9Long Marston:
Hertfordshire 405-7d
Cumberland 125 (ST Knox 56, BJ Frazer 7-36) and 79-0Manor Park:
Suffolk 364-7
Norfolk 177-8Thame:
Wiltshire 312 and 94-4
Oxfordshire 261 (C Knightley 86, R Bates 7-112)Swansea:
Shropshire 420-6 and 72-2
Wales 293 (OA Dawkins 164, A O’Connor 5-76)Day 1 of 3Alderley Edge:
Cheshire 404-7 (R Hignett 183, D Leach 152*; C Shreck 5-113)
Cornwall 36-0

India managed to draw the second Test against England, although the hosts had repeated glimpses of victory throughout an intriguing final day at Trent Bridge. After telling contributions from Dravid, Ganguly and Tendulkar, a flurry of wickets around the tea interval raised the possibility of a rapid run chase similar to the one England pulled off against Sri Lanka at Old Trafford; in the event, India’s young wicket-keeper Parthiv Patel and Zaheer Khan took the tourists to safety. England remain one-nil up with two Tests remaining.The draw was favourite throughout the day, albeit marginal at times, as India lost just two wickets in the first two sessions. Sachin Tendulkar made 92 (113 balls, 17 fours), but after looking comfortable for the first hour’s play, he was beaten and bowled by a perfect off-spinner from Michael Vaughan as he tried to drive the Yorkshireman through the covers. Vaughan had come on after England’s seam attack had searched fruitlessly for a breakthrough in the early overs.Dravid was fortunate to survive a confident appeal for caught behind off Hoggard when he was on 73 in the first over after the lunch interval. Umpire Koertzen shook his head, but replays suggested the thinnest of edges. That was the one blemish, as Dravid played with restraint and elegance to reach his first Test hundred against England. He had reached 115 (244 balls, 16 fours) when Nasser Hussain turned to Cork, bruised knee and all. He found enough reverse swing to rap Dravid on the pad with a ball that would have gone on to hit leg stump. Dravid had added a vital 134 runs with his captain, Sourav Ganguly, who was again in impeccable touch.Laxman was perilously close to the same fate off his first ball. He survived until tea, but was dismissed afterwards thanks to excellent captaincy. Hussain had moved Craig White back towards the backward square leg boundary, where Laxman obligingly hit Cork straight down his throat. When Ganguly was bowled off the inside edge by Harmison for 99 (159 balls, 13 fours) England were daring to hope again.Agarkar, after making 32, was lbw offering no stroke to the first ball of a new spell from Vaughan. Harbhajan Singh lost his off stump to a near full toss from Harmison. If India had folded quickly at that point, England would have fancied their chances of scoring around 130 to win in 20 overs. As it was, Patel and Zaheer held firm, and the series remains very much alive.Michael Vaughan was made Man of the Match for his 197, and there was a nice touch of sportsmanship from England, who let India’s 17-year-old wicket-keeper lead the teams in after his valuable contribution to India’s escape.

While emphasising that they had not abandoned their policy ofrebuilding, the West Indies cricket selectors yesterday included twoalmost forgotten over-30s in a 22-man training squad in preparationfor the home series against India.Junior Murray, the 34-year-old Grenadian wicket-keeper/batsman, andStuart Williams, the 32-year-old Nevisian opening batsmen, both ofwhom last played Test cricket on the 1998-99 tour of South Africa,were called up on the strength of outstanding performances in thecurrent Busta Series.The rebuilding process doesn’t mean that you go all youth. You pick ateam that you think has balance, chief selector Mike Findlay toldNATIONSPORT last night.Anybody who played in the Busta championship is eligible for selectionto the West Indies team. They [Murray and Williams] performed well andtheir performances warranted selection.Williams, whose previous 28 Tests yielded modest returns (1 092 runs,ave. 24.26), has been in rich form this season, reeling off 722 runsat an average of 72.20.Murray, who played in 31 Tests and 55 One-Day Internationals, hasbecome only the third player to score four centuries in a regionalfirst-class tournament on the way to 642 runs (ave. 53.50).Findlay, however, pointed out that the pair’s inclusion did not signala departure from the selectors’ goal of looking to the future.There are a few players there, who, although they are not youngsters,given the standard of West Indies’ cricket, their performances in thisseries have been outstanding, he said.The camp, which runs from March 21 to 28, comes ahead of a series offive Tests, which starts in Guyana on April 11.The 22 include four players without international experience.Left-handed Grenadian opener Devon Smith is called up after making aseason-high total of 750 runs, while Jamaican Gareth Breese isrewarded for a consistent season in which his right-handed battingbrought him 360 runs (ave. 45.00) and his improving off-breaks 35wickets.Jamaican Darrell Powell and Adam Sanford of the Leeward Islands, twofast bowlers in their first season of regional cricket, have also beensummoned. Powell, long identified by Andy Roberts as one of immensepotential, claimed 23 scalps, while the Dominica-born Sanford took 37.Two notable casualties from the recent tour of Sharjah are formervice-captain Sherwin Campbell and fast bowler Corey Collymore.We don’t think they warranted selection on this squad, based on theperformances of those who are selected, Findlay said.

Charles Forward, the hard hitting Old Tauntonians & Romsey left-hander, wrote himself into the Southern Electric Premier League record books with a stunning undefeated double-century against Division 2 rivals Sparsholt.

Forward became only the third batsman in Southern League history to make 200, following Mel Hussain (205 in 1984) and Hampshire’s Robin Smith, who hit a double century for Trojans at Petersfield two years earlier.Ironically, only 92 of Forward’s 200 not out came in boundaries – he his two sixes and 20 fours – but it was enough to totally demoralise injury-hit Sparsholt, who lost Carl Nicols (broken toe) and Mike Ball (groin).With Max Smith (68) sharing a 187-run opening stand, OTS piled up a massive 345-6.Totally bemused, Sparsholt managed 152-7 in reply, with Ollie Kelly (40) top scoring.United Services lost top spot to Easton & Martyr Worthy – seven wicket winners over Rowledge – after suffering a last ball defeat against the Hampshire Academy at Burnaby Road.US improved from an uncertain 64-4 to make 196-8, with Tom Clark (67 not out) and Damien Carson (33) playing lead middle-order roles.The Academy, fielding their youngest team so far, were in the driving seat at 138-4 after useful contributions by Iain Brunnschweiler (44) and Chris Benham (26).But they stuttered on the run-in, with 15-year old Basingstoke prospect Mitchell Stokes hitting an unbeaten 17 to guide the county youngsters home off the fourth ball of the final over.Raj Naik was the inspiration behind Winchester KS’s 79-run win at Hungerford, where Hampshire’s Jason Laney retired hurt after top edging an intended pull shot into his forehead.Laney’s injury, when he had made 46, had a significant impact as Hungerford were going well at 113-1, chasing Winchester’s awesome 285-6.Spinner Naik (4-38), who was bowling when Laney was injured, cut through the Hungerford middle-order, eventually leaving the Berkshire club 79 runs adrift on a demanding post-tea chase.Naik (90) top scored for WKS, sharing a 119-run second-wicket stand with Paul Baker (60), before Jimmy Taylor (25) and brother Martin, with a quick-fire 21, helped the visitors to 285-6 (Jason Williams 4-75).Australian all-rounder Aaron Heal had a major influence on Lymington‘s three-wicket win over Premier Division 2 strugglers Trojans at Stoneham Lane.He ripped out the Trojans middle-order to finish with 4-35 before guiding his side to the brink of victory.Glyn Treagus, who played for Trojans as a teenager, struck two early blows before Simon Williams (62) and Nigel le Bas (25) gave the innings some substance.Skipper Williams repeatedly lost partners to Heal’s left-arm spin and was eventually ninth batsman out as Trojans reached 132.Lymington lurched to 38-3 before Heal (38) found reliable partners in Matt Molloy (16) and Dave Coles (24) to steer Lymington to victory.

Glen Chapple claimed his second five-wicket haul of the season to put Lancashire in a healthy position by the end of the first day of their CricInfo Championship clash against Leicestershire at Grace Road.Chapple, wayward in his first spell before lunch, returned to take four of the last five wickets at a personal cost of ten runs in 7.3 overs, to finish with five for 40 as Leicestershire were bowled out for 240.It was a disappointing score for the home side, considering they had been 95 for one in the 29th over after an opening partnership of 70 between Vince Wells and Darren Maddy.But when Maddy was second out for 44 lbw to Mike Smethurst, it triggered a collapse which saw three wickets fall for one run in four overs. Muttiah Muralitharan took two of them in successive overs.Then a sixth-wicket stand of 68 in 12 overs between Australian Daniel Marsh and talented young batsman Darren Stevens restored some order to the Leicestershire innings.Marsh was in tremendous form, hitting 11 fours in his knock of 71 which came off 96 balls. It followed the 61 he made in the second innings against Essex in the opening Championship game and suggests he is going to be a valuable acquisition to the Leicestershire squad.It was Chapple, however, who made the most telling contribution to the day’s play by removing Stevens, Jon Dakin, Matt Whiley and Devon Malcolm in a hostile and accurate spell which once again exposed the inconsistencies in Leicestershire’s batting.It is the second time Chapple has taken five wickets this season. He claimed six for 46 in Lancashire’s win at Somerset.Leicestershire lost their last five wickets for 26 runs in 14 overs to fall well short of the sort of total they would have been looking for after the start they were given.By the close, despite two interruptions for bad light, Lancashire had also enjoyed a solid start reaching 45 without loss, 195 runs behind.

Two century partnerships dominated the second day as Northern Districts moved into a commanding position against Otago, whose position at the foot of the State Championship was confirmed.ND finished on 320/5 in their first innings, a lead of 202. Scott Styris was the individual performer of the day, with a career-best 127 not out.Otago added 11 to their overnight score to be all out for 118. Joseph Yovich had David Sewell caught behind to finish with four for 58.The ND innings began as disastrously as Otago’s had, with both openers falling early to casual shots.James Marshall nudged a leg-side delivery from Kerry Walmsley into the hands of wicket-keeper Duncan Drew. Matthew Hart drove rashly at Sewell to give Craig Pryor a catch at second slip. At 10/2 it seemed that another ND collapse was on its way.But it was not to be. Michael Parlane and Grant Robinson put on 104 for the third wicket, only the second century stand for ND this season.Parlane’s 65 came from 115 balls, including 11 fours and a six. At his best, Parlane strikes the ball as fluently as anybody. Two cuts off successive deliveries from Pryor illustrated his range. A delicate shot went fine of third man for four, followed by a bludgeoning hoist, square for six. Pryor also dropped Parlane, off Sewell, on 41, but had his revenge by returning to attack to remove the batsman’s off stump.Robinson began cautiously, not hitting a boundary until he had been in for 13 overs. He had some luck, with edges not going to hand, but batted with increasing confidence. The left-hander out-scored Parlane in the latter phase of the partnership, no mean feat in itself. He finished with 45, with eight fours.ND cannot go on converting bowlers into top order batsmen. They need specialists who will develop into long-term regulars. Robinson’s performance today hinted that he may fit the bill.Another hundred partnership followed at once, as Styris and Hamish Marshall put on 112 for the fifth wicket. Styris dominated from the outset, causing a flurry of bowling changes from Otago skipper Craig Cumming as he became increasingly desperate to cut off the flow of runs.Marshall was overshadowed at first, but accelerated later, hitting six fours and a six on his way to 43 from 69 balls. The partnership occupied only 24 overs before Marshall padded up right in front of the stumps to the first delivery of a new spell from Walmsley.A tough chance on the square leg boundary was knocked over the line for six by Chris Gaffaney to allow Styris to reach fifty and Drew missed a stumping chance that would have given Scott Waide his first first-class wicket when Styris was 83.Styris reached the second century of his career from 112 balls. In all, he hit 10 fours and five sixes, the biggest of which went into the rush hour traffic over wide long on. The time has come to take Styris out of the pigeon-hole marked ‘one-day specialist who bats a bit’. His innings today was fine attacking, orthodox batting, full of good shots all round the wicket. He is ND’s leading scorer in the State Championship.Robbie Hart (20 not out) supported Styris well in the last hour, as they put on an unbroken 79 for the sixth wicket.The day ended controversially. The penultimate ball saw the last of a series of caught behind appeals turned down. The bowler, Walmsley, was visibly annoyed. The batsman, Robbie Hart, pulled away from the next ball just before the point of delivery. Walmsley carried on and removed a bail. Hart stood his ground. The umpires consulted before ruling that the ball was dead.Walmsley and his opening partner Sewell were the only bowlers who bowled with consistent control. They were unlucky not to take wickets in their new-ball spell at the end of the day. Walmsley finished the day with two for 48, Sewell with one for 59.Waide and Nathan Morland bowled a lengthy spell of off spin in partnership after tea. It was controlled, but largely unthreatening.ND will attempt to bat through to lunch tomorrow before setting Otago a target of 350 plus. An innings victory is a realistic prospect.

While Tamim Iqbal was taking apart the West Indies attack in Mirpur, Shivnarine Chanderpaul walked up to him. “He asked me whether I was playing a Twenty20,” Tamim said. “I replied that I’m just hitting what the bowlers are bowling but I can’t bat like you.” To which Chanderpaul said, “Neither can I.”Perhaps Chanderpaul meant that is the case at his current age of 38, because he has batted at higher strike-rates than Tamim in the past two decades, most memorably during the 69-ball century against Australia in 2003, which at the time was the third fastest Test hundred. In Mirpur, though, he showed the side of his batting that is more frequently seen these days.His 203 took more than seven-and-a-half hours, the fifth longest innings in terms of minutes. He used the example of the first two days of this Test to explain how he changes the pace of his innings according to the situation. He batted at a strike-rate of 63 on the first day during which he scored 123 runs off 195 deliveries, but then he took 177 balls to score 80 on the second day, at a strike-rate of 45.2.”These are things I work out in my game, whichever way I can,” Chanderpaul said. “Sometimes you find yourself in good form and things go your way, you get into a rhythm and you’re able to score freely and quicker. Some days you have to work hard, that’s how it goes.”We scored freely yesterday, but we had to work hard today. The [Bangladesh] bowlers tried a little too hard yesterday but today they bowled well. They bowled to a plan, stuck to it and made us work hard. You have to, as a Test cricketer, put your head down and work hard when the time comes.”His double-century also brought him level with Garry Sobers on 26 Test hundreds, leaving Brian Lara as the only West Indian with more Test tons. “The team comes first, it doesn’t matter what the individual score is. Whatever the team plan is, that is what we have to stick to. It is always a great honour [to be mentioned] with names like Sir Garry, though I have played a lot more games than him.”This was only his second double-hundred, and he doesn’t have the mammoth scores that Sobers and Lara ran up. “[Batting low down the order] could be one reason. I had opportunities to get a big hundred but I didn’t, it’s unfortunate. Thankfully today I was able to cross it [200].”Chanderpaul’s usefulness isn’t limited to the field. He is a mentor to batsmen like Kieran Powell and Denesh Ramdin, both of whom shared long partnerships with him in this game. Powell missed a short ball from offspinner Sohag Gazi to be bowled after making a century, prompting Chanderpaul to have a talk with the young opener about his dismissal. “He played a fantastic innings yesterday. Unfortunately he got out the way he did. I had a chat with him about the way he did. I thought he should have played the first ball after tea a lot straighter.”I didn’t see anybody getting him out, he’s the one who’s giving his wicket away. I have talked to him about already. The future looks bright, you’ve seen [Veerasammy] Permaul today. We were here last year, you know what we have back home on offer. The future looks good for us.”At the end of the tour last year, Chanderpaul spent nearly half an hour with the Bangladesh batsmen. How Bangladesh would like to have someone like him in their midst for the long term.

Another sweltering day, not just for the players, but also for the disgruntled BBC broadcasters, who had been barred from entering the ground this morning and forced to cover the game from the crumbling ramparts of the old Dutch Fort. They, at least, were allowed to return to the relative cool of the Press Box at lunch, as England were forced to endure another five and-a-half hours fielding in temperatures that soared to 116 degrees Fahrenheit.Although the Sri Lankan band created a relentless cacophony of noise and the pink-faced English supporters occasionally roused themselves for a brief rendition of “Engerlund, Engerlund,” it was not a scintillating day of Test cricket. Sri Lanka’s batsmen were forced to graft for every run and once again displayed admirable patience as they piled up 470 for five.They then declared for an eight over burst against England’s foot-weary openers and Sanath Jayasuriya wasted to no time before he unveiled the key to the future course of this match: Muttiah Muralitharan. He opened the bowling, but failed to break through, as the England openers punished some overly eager bowling and ended the day on 27 without loss.Sri Lanka were guided to their final score of 470 by a marathon double century from Marvan Atapattu, the fourth in his 42 Test career and the third slowest in the history of Test cricket, after Brendon Kuruppu (777mins) and Gary Kirsten (741mins). He reached his double century after 677 minutes of painstaking concentration and 530 balls.Dav Whatmore praised the efforts of Atapattu afterwards: “Marvan displayed tremendous determination, patience and concentration. The fact he refused to play the pull shot despite so many short balls just reflects his fantastic mental attitude.”Atapattu is a strong Buddhist and thus should know a thing or two about patience, but even he must have been mentally tested by England’s tactics. Darren Gough, the fast spearhead of England’s brave new world, jettisoned his normal quest for speed in favour of 70mph off-cutters to six men on the leg side. Craig White, too, bowled his slow off-cutter with gay abandon and Andrew Caddick preferred to bowl short to inhibit stoke-play. With the aim to frustrate the batsmen and slow the scoring rate, it was thus no surprise that two out of the three wickets to fall were from run outs.Hussain’s tactics may not have provided for pretty cricket, but it did make life difficult for the Sri Lankans, whom Darren Gough admitted afterwards could have scored more: “They never got away from us and could easily have scored another hundred or so.”The conditions have to be up there with the worst that I have bowled in. We knew from the first game in Sri Lanka that the wickets were not going to be responsive. At least in Pakistan though the ball skidded on, here it just sat up and came through slowly. That being the case we had to try and mix it up,” he explained afterwards.Atapattu was given tremendous support in the morning by Aravinda de Silva and the pair added 230 for the third wicket. The veteran batsman has been in and out of the side in the last year and had failed to score a half-century in his previous 12 innings. He, however, repaid the faith shown in him by Sanath Jayasuriya and the Sri Lankan selectors, with a surprisingly watchful 106 off 243 balls, his 19th Test century.Although he had been dropped twice in his innings, once last night when he had made 20 and again today by Alec Stewart down the leg side, when he had made 97, a run out always appeared his most likely form of dismissal. And so it was, when on the stroke of the afternoon drinks break, he was caught ball watching and failed to respond to Atapattu’s call for a simple single.Mahela Jayawardene, who had waited for five hours with his pads on, raised the tempo after the dismissal of de Silva. He made the most of being dropped by a tumbling Gough at mid-off right at the start of his innings and attacked the English spinners, hitting Giles for a straight six and sweeping Croft for one two overs later. When the spinners bowled outside his legs he responded by reverse sweeping.He too was eventually run out thanks to some impressive football skills fromGraham Thorpe, who, betraying his youthful promise representing English Schoolboys that earned the offer of a trial at Brentford FC, charged in from cover and shot directly on to the stumps from five yards. Jayawardene made 61 from 94 balls.Sri Lanka then tried to grab some quick runs before the declaration by promoting Chaminda Vaas, as Marvan Atapattu crawled towards his double century, which he eventually reached in the 168th over of the innings. He was somewhat fortunate to have scored it after Stewart missed a stumping chance and Caddick spilled a caught and bowled chance when he had made 177.Speaking afterwards, Atapattu was characteristically modest about his performance: “I just tried to stay and accumulate runs as I am not a big hitter of the ball like the others. The English made it really difficult for us to score freely because of the line they bowled.”He warned about Sri Lanka being complacent: “We did not bowl that well tonight. I think we were a little over eager and need to tighten up tomorrow. We can’t take England lightly, they have shown in Pakistan that they are a tough side to bowl out.”