All posts by csb10.top

Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were outUpul Tharanga batted patiently in tricky conditions to set up Sri Lanka’s chase•AFP

When he lost the toss, Kumar Sangakkara said a team that couldn’t overcome the tall order of chasing under the low Dambulla floodlights was not a good team. They were big words all right, but ones his side backed up.On a helpful pitch, Lasith Malinga was too good, Angelo Mathews canny, and New Zealand were dismissed for 192. After Tillakaratne Dilshan fell early in the chase, Upul Tharanga provided Sangakkara solid support in a partnership that set up the base for a shot at a bonus point. It helps if the captain himself scores a 48 as stylish as it was solid on a tricky pitch. Amid falling wickets, Sri Lanka played positive, innovative cricket, but couldn’t make the target inside 40 overs and secure the bonus point.BJ Watling’s half-century on debut, and Nathan McCullum’s fighting 36 with the tail, were the bright spots for New Zealand. They will kick themselves for losing three wickets to relatively innocuous bowling from Mathews, when compared with the efforts of Malinga and Nuwan Kulasekara. BJ Watling and Ross Taylor overcame a tough examination against seam and swing, but New Zealand lost wickets in pairs thrice to surrender the toss advantage. Watling, who was the seventh New Zealander to score fifty-plus on debut, survived the early seam, but he too was part of one of those braces, pulling a short and wide delivery from outside off, with his weight on the front foot. It was the first ball of Mathews’ second spell.New Zealand’s innings began with a no-ball, but in that same over Malinga consumed Martin Guptill through a leading edge. Kulasekara extracted massive seam movement from the other end. The batsmen focused on survival, but Sangakkara suddenly removed Malinga after a spell of 3-1-9-1. With Mathews came a slight release of pressure. In his first two overs he went for three consecutive boundaries, over the on side in the seventh and twice through the off side in the ninth. In his third over, though, Mathews made a smart comeback.Taylor, who is good at making contact with the ball while moving across the stumps, was slightly slow on this occasion, and was caught plumb in front. As opposed to Kulasekara’s deliveries, this one from Mathews wasn’t predictable, and came in just enough to be hitting the stumps. Two balls later, Mathews floated a wide half-volley, which Kane Williamson edged because his feet were rooted. The only thing remarkable about that dismissal was the diving catch at first slip from Thilan Samaraweera. Two matches into his career, Williamson is yet to score an international run.Watling, the other rookie, had support from Scott Styris in a 52-run fourth-wicket stand, but the allrounder edged a sharp offbreak from Rangana Herath. Watling then welcomed Mathews back with that horror shot. New Zealand had gone from 47 for 1 to 47 for 3, and from 99 for 3 to 101 for 5. Malinga came back with two wickets in two balls, a smart slower ball and a superb yorker, to make it 123 for 7.In true New Zealand fashion, though, the lower order fought along with McCullum to take New Zealand to a potentially fighting total. It was not an easy pitch to bat on, and the bowling wasn’t pedestrian either. Once Sangakkara had the pitch measured up, though, it was just one stylish shot after another.The ball moved around for both Daryl Tuffey and Kyle Mills, but Sangakkara was watchful. He opened up when New Zealand brought on their back-up bowlers. Sangakkara welcomed Tim Southee with a lovely straight chip for four and kept his elbow held high, lest some photographers missed it. He went one better in the next over and played his other two special shots. Andy McKay’s first delivery was driven on the up through cover, with Sangakkara down on one knee, the follow through ending at his back. The next ball angled into the pads, and he whipped it, not through midwicket, but square leg. In the 15th over, he played another breathtaking straight drive, and overtook Tharanga, reaching 33 off 39, having been 13 off 24 at one point.It took a stunning catch from Guptill at short extra cover to end Sangakkara’s innings. By then, though, Sri Lanka were on their way. Any chance that New Zealand could have made anything out of that break disappeared when Styris, at slip, dropped a tough offering from Tharanga, on 44.In the 35th over, with 50 runs required, Sri Lanka called for the Powerplay but lost wickets as they pursued the bonus point. Chamara Kapugedara was held back, just in case things went wrong, and the tailenders were asked to go have fun. Kulasekara came, smote a six, and then got out. Herath came and went in three deliveries. Seven down. With eight runs required off six balls for the bonus point, though, Sri Lanka gave up the adventure and settled for victory with 9.1 overs to spare.

Following Sri Lanka’s comprehensive 81-run defeat in the Asia Cup final, the captain Kumar Sangakkara said the target of 269 was achievable but his batsmen lost the advantage when five wickets fell in the first 15 overs. He added that the fielding was not up to the mark especially in an important game like this.”Unfortunately, our batting style wasn’t probably apt for the conditions. Maybe it would have been a bit tighter and we should have been a bit more positive in executing our strokes,” Sangakkara said. “If we had got through that difficult period, it may have been a couple of wickets down for 60 on the board in the first 15 overs and it would have been a great run chase.”We weren’t the greatest on the field. We had a lot of missed goals that cost us boundaries, 19 extras really doesn’t help the cause especially when you know that you are facing the tougher conditions batting second. We dragged it back in the last 12 overs which cost us only 60 runs but unfortunately, India had a great start, a couple of good partnerships in the middle and 268 was always a very good score on a track like this. We probably gave India about 15-20 runs extra but it wouldn’t have mattered in the end because we got only 187.”Although his team could not make it three Asia Cup wins-in-a-row, Sangakkara said the entire squad showed a lot of character and ability.”What you’ve got to learn is when you get to a final that’s probably where you should play your best cricket, just lift your standards up as high as you can and really go for the blow,” he said. “Unfortunately we had three great games where we outplayed the opposition.”Under Sangakkara’s leadership, this defeat was third in a tournament final, twice to India (first at the Compaq Cup last year) and once to Pakistan (ICC World T20).”We always manage to get into the final unbeaten, then not really perform in the final. Unfortunately we haven’t been able to lift our standards,” Sangakkara said. “You can always talk about the toss at R Premadasa Stadium (Colombo) and at Dambulla but it’s always the mentality that really counts in the end.”The defeatist attitude once the toss goes up and doesn’t come our way is not the right way to go playing cricket. You’ve got to work a lot harder, especially in the first 15 overs.”Commenting on the conditions at Dambulla, Sangakkara said: “We were expecting the ball to move anyway under lights in Dambulla. Both sides played three seamers, unfortunately for us we couldn’t deal with the movement. They bowled good lines and lengths that were tight and hitting the right areas more often than we did at the start. We can talk about swing and seam and all of that, but at the end of the day technically we could have dealt with it a lot better. Getting through difficult periods is the key, not everything goes your way every day. When it doesn’t that’s when the character shows.However, Sangakkara said the fielding was a big disappointment. “We had three great games fielding wise but in the final again we probably saw a big lax in really stopping the ball and converting half chances,” he said. “Especially in a final the margin for error is very little. Conditions or form don’t affect fielding, it is the one thing that you are totally in control of.”

Scorecard
Jamie Dalrymple cracked his first century of the season as Glamorgan tookcontrol on the second day of their County Championship clash withNorthamptonshire at the Swalec Stadium.Having dismissed the visitors for just 253 in their first innings at the end ofplay on day one Glamorgan responded by reaching 348 for 5 at the close of thesecond day, giving them an overall lead of 95.Dalrymple’s century – from 174 balls with 13 fours – was his fifth for theWelsh side but he was dismissed just before the close for 105 having shared in astand of 79 with Jim Allenby (39) for the fifth wicket. As well as the captain’s contribution, the Welsh county were indebted to a solid platform set by openers Mark Cosgrove and Gareth Rees (64), who put on 147 for the first wicket in 36.4 overs.Cosgrove looked set to score another century against Northamptonshire followingthe 102 he plundered against them last season. And he certainly made his mark. In the seventh over he hit strike bowler Jack Brooks on the shin with a hard hit drive. Brooks was helped off the field but did manage to return to the action later in the day.The south Australian left hander brought up his half-century in only 54 balls and looked relatively untroubled, although he did survive a difficult stumping attempt by Niall O’Brien off James Middlebrook when he was on 60. Cosgrove responded by striking the same bowler for a six over long on. Rees had been happy to drop anchor at the other end but brought up his half-century in the penultimate over before lunch.Glamorgan continued to go well but in the fifth over after lunchNorthamptonshire got the breakthrough they needed when Cosgrove, 15 short of hiscentury, edged Lee Daggett to David Sales at second slip. And with Cosgrove’s departure the tempo of the innings changed as the Northamptonshire seam battery began to find a better line and length.That improvement was rewarded with the wicket of Rees, who was caught down theleg side by O’Brien off Andrew Hall to leave Glamorgan 170 for 2, which became223 for 2 by tea.After the interval Glamorgan continued to make progress but Dalrymple lost bothBen Wright, caught at slip off Daggett, and Michael Powell, who was trapped infront by Hall.Despite being off the field for 30 minutes because of rain Dalrymple andAllenby took the lead to almost 100, but in the final over of the day thecaptain was snared at slip off Nicky Boje.

ScorecardPersistent rain rescued County Championship title challengersNottinghamshire from the possibility of a second straight defeat as their clashwith Essex was abandoned as a draw.Even with the fast-drying Trent Bridge outfield, the weather never allowed theNotts groundstaff to remove the covers and the two captains agreed to a drawshortly before 4pm. The result would have been frustrating for visitors Essex, who were in a decentposition overnight to push for their first win since their opening game of theseason after finishing day three on 152 for 2, a lead of 264.Instead they picked up nine points to move to sixth in Division One, whileNotts claimed seven – enough to move them back to the top of the table, level on103 points with Yorkshire having played two games less.Notts skipper Chris Read said: “It wasn’t a great game as far as we wereconcerned, and we felt we were outplayed in most departments. But a key indicator of a strong team is how they bounce back, and we go to Tunbridge Wells to play Kent on Friday knowing that a good performance willleave us top ahead of the break for the Twenty 20.”It’s important that we finish the ‘first half’ of the Championship season ona high, and being able to turn to Twenty20 knowing we were top of the tablewould be a fantastic boost.”

Former BCCI president AC Muthiah has filed a petition in the Supreme Court challenging the board’s rules that permit BCCI and IPL administrators to be part of the IPL and own league teams. The petition follows the Madras High Court’s decision last month to dismiss a similar plea filed by Muthiah and is significant in light of the fact that the board secretary, N Srinivasan, is also the owner of an IPL franchise, Chennai Super Kings.Prior to the amendment, clause 6.2.4 of the Regulations for Players, Team officials, Umpires and Administrators, said: “No administrator shall have, directly or indirectly any commercial interest in the matches and events conducted by the Board.” After the amendment, though, the clause said “no administrator shall have directly or indirectly any commercial interest in any of the events of the BCCI excluding IPL, Champions League and Twenty20.”Muthiah’s petition echoes his recent statements that Srinivasan’s convening of Monday’s crucial IPL governing council meeting is invalid given the conflict of interest.The meeting is set to decide Lalit Modi’s future with the IPL. Modi, who is under fire over allegations of corruption, has questioned Srinivasan’s authority in convening the meeting for the same reason as Muthiah.”All he [Srinivasan] is actually is an ex-officio member of the council, as an office-bearer of BCCI, and he is a conflicted party who owns an IPL team. He has never and can never call a governing council meeting,” Modi wrote in a mail to BCCI president Shashank Manohar.Last month, however, the Madras High Court dismissed Muthiah’s application that sought to remove Srinivasan of his role as a BCCI office-bearer given his involvement in the IPL. Under its original rules, the BCCI prohibited its office-bearers from having commercial interests in the league, but this rule was retrospectively amended in September 2008, eight months after the inaugural round of bidding for IPL franchises.The Chennai franchise was won by the company India Cements, of which Srinivasan is the managing director, and BCCI’s ruling validated his involvement in the IPL.In December that year, Muthiah filed a civil suit in Madras High Court, questioning the BCCI’s amendment that effectively said the IPL was out of the board’s purview. Muthiah also filed an application seeking an interim stay on Srinivasan functioning as BCCI secretary, for the period until the suit was heard.That application was turned down in March this year, while the suit is yet to be heard by the court. The court’s stand was that the clause was a code of conduct and not a rule, and as such could not be challenged by an individual from outside the BCCI. The court however ruled that the merits and demerits of various clauses could be examined during the hearing of the civil suit.The governing council is set to meet on April 26, and at the latest on May 1, if Modi’s attempt to defer it is successful. The suit is unlikely to be tried between now and the meeting, which makes Modi’s line of defence against Srinivasan untenable.Meanwhile, Muthiah expressed his support to Modi’s claim, reiterating his original argument. “I quite agree with Lalit Modi. Srinivasan is an interested party and I filed a case against him for conflict of interest. He is a secretary and he is a holder of franchise. It is clear he has no right to call for a meeting,” Muthiah told PTI.

Match facts

Deccan v Chennai, Nagpur
Saturday, April 10
Start time 1600 (1030 GMT)If Deccan beat Chennai, four teams will be level on ten points•Indian Premier League

Big Picture

The rules of the game have changed a bit since Deccan Chargers beat Royal Challengers Bangalore on Thursday night. Had Deccan rolled over and died in the big chase then, this match wouldn’t be between Deccan and Chennai Super Kings. This rather would have been one part of the tussle between Chennai, Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals.Now, though, not only have Deccan thrown their hat in, Bangalore too are not so sure of their progress. Instead of a three-way tussle for the last spot, it has become a five-way epic for the last two slots. This heightened scenario of permutations and combinations will of course stand all but squashed if Chennai beat Deccan in Nagpur, where the latter choked so spectacularly against Rajasthan.If Deccan build some sort of momentum, though, and beat Chennai, more intrigue will follow: Chennai, Bangalore, Deccan and Kolkata will we levelled at 10 points each in that scenario, with the second match of Saturday to break up the tie between Kolkata and Bangalore. It’s all a bit delicate for all the five teams involved, and time for making mistakes is gone. This much is given: both sides will be feeling good after upset victories against Bangalore and Mumbai Indians in their last respective matches.

Form guide (most recent first)

Chennai Super Kings WWWLL
Deccan Chargers WLLLL

Team talk

T Suman solved a big headache for Deccan, becoming the first Indian domestic player to make a sizeable contribution for them this season. It might still be a step too far for them to do away with an overseas allrounder, Mitchell Marsh in this case, and bring in Chaminda Vaas to bolster a struggling bowling attack. In tough times, though, tough teams make tough calls.Doug Bollinger’s arrival has given Chennai the x-factor they needed, but Thilan Thushara’s impressive performance ahead of Muttiah Muralitharan will give them a bit of a selectorial headache, especially with Albie Morkel and Justin Kemp returning to fitness. Morkel should take his place ahead of Mike Hussey, which will make it an interesting toss-up between Thushara and Murali. Sudeep Tyagi should retain his place ahead of L Balaji, Manpreet Gony and Joginder Sharma.

Previously

Deccan 3, Chennai 2
In their first match, in the first week of the tournament, Deccan racked up 190 and defended it with ease in Chennai, to break their head-to-head tie over the last two seasons.

In the spotlight

Adam Gilchrist has been striking at the rate of 176.81 per 100 balls, but the trouble for Deccan is he has lasted on an average only 13.8 balls per innings. Teams are mindful that one of these days he will play 50 balls, and run away with the match. Chennai will hope Saturday is not one of those days.Something similar could be said of Matthew Hayden, who is yet to follow up his Mongoose-driven demolition of Delhi Daredevils with another match-winning innings. Just as with Gilchrist, his long-time ODI opening partner, Hayden’s next big innings can’t be too far away. We are in for some match if their big days coincide on the Saturday.

Prime numbers

• At 12 wickets, Murali is three short of purple-cap-holder Pragyan Ojha.
• Gilchrist’s 176.81 is the best strike-rate among those who have scored 200 or more in this IPL.
• At 89 wickets, Morkel is only one strike behind the most successful bowler in all Twenty20s, Yasir Arafat.

The chatter

“A 90% improved performance, still 10% left to do.”
“I think the fresh legs in our team after the three changes helped us. It was late when I went to bed, still feeling very elated. The next morning, I couldn’t believe we had won.”

Zimbabwe Cricket chairman Peter Chingoka believes their chances of returning to Test cricket in 18 months are “very realistic”. His confidence stems from the appointment of a new coaching team – Alan Butcher was announced as Zimbabwe’s new coach over the weekend, and will be supported by assistant Stephen Mangongo along with former international players Heath Streak and Grant Flower.The country lost several leading players in an exodus following Heath Streak’s removal from the captaincy in 2004 and the situation became worse in 2006 when the Zimbabwe board suspended the weakened national team from Tests.”We endorsed them [the new coaching setup] unanimously,” Chingoka told . “They have the full support of the board. If you talk to experts like Dave Houghton and Alan Butcher they will tell you it’s very realistic, and I fully agree with them.”We just need to play a lot of games against ‘A’ sides from the leading Test nations. When we get back to Tests, we would want to start with lower sides like Bangladesh and then work ourselves upwards. The management is working on a program to take us to where we want.”Chingoka said cricket in Zimbabwe was making progress following a period of deterioration that mirrored the economic and political problems in the country. “It’s healthy and long may it continue,” Chingoka said. “The game is bigger than all of us. Everyone is just concentrating on cricket.”Zimbabwe announced in 2006 that they were temporarily withdrawing from Tests, having last played India at home in September 2005. Only a few players from the exodus, including Steak and left-arm spinner Ray Price, made comebacks. The country continues to play ODIs and Twenty20s but languishes at the bottom of the world rankings.However, the domestic structure has been overhauled and restructured competitions like the Logan Cup have convinced former internationals like Sean Ervine to return home from England. The country’s first Twenty20 competition – the Stanbic Bank 20 Series – was also played recently and featured former Australia allrounder Ian Harvey and England’s Chris Silverwood as player-coaches.Zimbabwe are scheduled to play one Twenty20 international and five ODIs on their tour of West Indies starting on Sunday.

New Zealand and Sri Lanka will cross a new frontier when they meet each other in three Twenty20 internationals in the USA in May.The games will take place at Central Broward Regional Park Cricket Stadium in Lauderhill, Florida, which has been approved by the ICC. It is the first time two Full Members will have met in an official match on US soil and it follows the signing of a strategic partnership between the USA Cricket Association (USACA) and New Zealand Cricket (NZC) last year.”Given the door to cricket has been opened to investment through the sale of Indian Premier League franchises, this model is a logical step to raising the capital required to take cricket in the US to another level,” said Justin Vaughan, NZC’s chief executive. “The structure proposed is a wonderful opportunity for someone to get in on the ground floor, particularly given the growing level of interest in the US cricket market.”A delighted Don Lockerbie, CEO of USACA, said the move was the first of what he hoped would be many such initiatives, adding the US national side would participate in some warm-up matches as well.”We are experiencing increasing demand for ‘Destination USA’ cricket events from many Full Member ICC countries and the Sri Lanka v New Zealand series will bring – as forecasted – world-class cricket to the USA,” he said. “Through the strategic collaboration with NZC we now have the additional administrative support and knowledge base to be able to commercialise these opportunities and ultimately grow the revenue streams from one of the world’s largest advertising markets.”Looking ahead, Lockerbie added the matches were “a small indication of the amount of cricket content under consideration with our partners at NZC. We will be meeting with potential investors and event developers over the next few weeks and months to keep building our momentum. The interest is already high from potential investors in India and the US, and this is very encouraging.”

Former Pakistan wicketkeeper Rashid Latif and the Karachi city government have come together to launch, from next week, what might be the most lucrative club tournament to have been played in Pakistan.The Karachi Champions League, a Twenty20 league, for the leading clubs of the city will begin next week with Rs 10 million (around USD 117,200) as the top prize for the winners. The tournament, a brainchild of Latif and the Rashid Latif Cricket Academy (RLCA) will feature a number of Karachi-based international players, as well as a host of domestic cricketers. Younis Khan, Shahid Afridi, Khalid Latif, Fawad Alam, Khurram Manzoor and Sarfraz Ahmed, among others, will be playing.”It was an old idea of mine, one that I had been working on,” Latif, who captained Pakistan as well, told Cricinfo. “I am a big follower of English football and I love the history of clubs over there, like Chelsea and Fulham. We have so many old clubs in Karachi and we need to revive that club culture once again here.”The idea was put into practice after Latif ran the idea by the city’s mayor Mustafa Kamal during what was supposed to be a five-minute meeting. “We ran the idea by him and he agreed after a minute,” Latif said. The prize money has been put up by Kamal’s city government; as well as the winning club getting Rs 10 million, the runners-up will receive Rs 5 million (around USD 58,900), the semi-finalists Rs 500,000 (around USD 5900) each and the quarter-finalists Rs 250,000 (around USD 2900). All told there is Rs 17 million (nearly USD 200,000) in prize money at stake, easily the most lucrative local tournament in the country’s history.The tournament is expected to last nearly a month and will be played at various grounds around the city that are supervised and run by the RLCA. Malir Gymkhana, North Nazimabad CC, Korangi Al-Fatah CC and Airport Gymkhana are some of the more renowned 16 clubs in the tournament and each will be allowed only one international player.The tournament will be televised on , a local sports channel and plans are already underway to make it a national league – the Pakistan Champions League. “Karachi is the financial centre of Pakistan and a lot of MNCs are based here,” Latif said. “The plan is to get them to sponsor a club each. Next season we will introduce player trading and hopefully in time, it can be pushed to a national league.”

With England heading into the final Test against South Africa with a 1-0 lead the selectors are feeling vindicated in their choices for this tour, after the original squad raised some eyebrows.England brought just the six specialist batsman on the trip – although Michael Carberry was a late addition after Paul Collingwood dislocated his finger at Durban – and the inclusion of all six in the line-up for the three Tests so far, has provoked much debate.However, the move has paid off handsomely with Ian Bell’s performances in Durban and Cape Town being key to England’s advantageous position, although it has left Luke Wright, who has yet to prove his Test credentials, a peripheral figure.”This has been a very, very difficult tour,” Geoff Miller, the national selector, told reporters. “We came out here, and people were questioning some of the selections – who we’d left out and who we’d actually picked.”Was our squad going to be strong enough to play against a team who were the best in the world. The answer is we’ve just beaten them in a one-day series – and not only that, we’re 1-0 up with one to play in the Test series.”Bell’s resurgence in form has been one of the highlights of the tour from England’s point of view and has repaid the faith shown in him after a poor opening Test in Centurion. His 140 set up a match-winning lead in Durban and without his 213-ball 78 at Newlands the series would now be all square.”We’re looking for continuity, and we hope they return that by performing on the field,” Miller said. “Ian had a bit of a tough time. He was left out, and when the opportunity came back we didn’t just bring him back straight away; we gave him the opportunity to go and sort his game out, which he did.”We felt, and he felt, that if he got that chance again he could do it – and he has done it, on two occasions. One was when we were in a very strong position and one when we weren’t. That was the question asked of him many times, and I’m thrilled to bits with him that he’s been a very integral part of us drawing that game.”However, Miller knows it is dangerous to get carried away and talk of holding onto win the series 1-0 doesn’t sit comfortably. Conditions at the Wanderers are unlikely to favour a draw with the pitch expected to aid the quicks. There hasn’t been a draw at the ground since 2000 and that Test against New Zealand had three days washed out. Ten years ago, England were inserted on a raging green-top and crashed to 2 for 4 against Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock.”I’m not particularly looking for a draw in the series. I’m looking for us to actually go out and win this game,” Miller said. “We’ve played two games where we’ve just hung on by the skin of our teeth; then the other one, we’ve gone out and played exceedingly well.”I’m anticipating doing well in this last Test match as well. We’ve got players who are capable of winning games. We won’t be going out to play for a draw in this Test match – we’re going out to win it.”