All posts by csb10.top

Charl Langeveldt has signed for Somerset, as a replacement for Sanath Jayasuriya who has return to Sri Lanka in preparation for their series against West Indies.Langeveldt, 30, has played four Tests and 16 ODIs, making an early mark on Test cricket by taking a five-wicket haul on his Test debut against England at Cape Town. During South Africa’s tour of West Indies he took a hat-trick in the third ODI at Barbados to clinch a one-run win and with it the series.He will arrive at Somerset once he has received clearance from the South Africa Cricket Board and joins Graeme Smith, his national captain, at Taunton. Langeveldt’s sharp outswing will add an additional cutting edge to Somerset’s attack, which has recently lost Nixon McLean.

England XI 256 for 9 (Trescothick 124*, Prior 50, Yasir Arafat 4-45) v Patron’s XI
Scorecard

Marcus Trescothick demonstrated the virtues of patience on a slow and low track, batting from first ball to last for an unbeaten 124, as England recovered from a desperate position on the opening day of their first warm-up fixture against a PCB Patron’s XI at Rawalpindi.That they did so, however, was due entirely to Duncan Fletcher’s pre-match arrangement that all 14 members of his squad would be able to play a part if required. Had he not done so, England would not have had batsmen of the quality of Matt Prior and Alex Loudon to bail them out at Nos 10 and 11. Between them, they all but doubled England’s total, adding 126 precious runs for the last two wickets.Despite a composed acclimatisation period over the past week, England soon discovered that there is no substitute for genuine match practice. After losing Andrew Strauss in the third over of the day, they went on to ship five more wickets in the space of 19 runs after the mid-morning drinks interval, eventually reaching lunch on an ignominious 61 for 6. Trescothick had made 34 of these. It was not riches by any means, but by emulating the slow-but-steady tactics that had served his opening partner, Michael Atherton, so well on the 2000-01 tour, he had at least given himself a platform that his team-mates had so palpably squandered.The top half of England’s innings was a sorry tale, with none of the first six dismissals reaching double-figures. Najaf Shah, a promising 20-year-old left-arm seamer from Lahore, bowled Strauss for 5 as he offered no stroke (10 for 1), before exposing Michael Vaughan’s peculiar weakness on low-bouncing wickets, trapping him lbw for 9 with a full-length inswinger (41 for 2).The appearance of Kevin Pietersen at No. 4 was a significant hint as to England’s thinking ahead of the first Test, but though he has been middling virtually everything that has come his way during practice, his habit of starting an innings slowly was once again exposed as Yasir Ali persuaded him to skew a sharp catch to Asim Kamal in the gully. One run later, Paul Collingwood, pushed in ahead of Ian Bell in the pecking order, attempted a horrid smear across the line and under-edged onto his middle stump to give Yasir Arafat his first breakthrough (54 for 4).

Arafat, Scotland’s overseas player, then ripped through the middle order with three wickets in 12 balls – all bowled. Bell, who is the man most likely to miss out when Andrew Flintoff joins the squad next week, missed an important opportunity to restate his credentials. He had faced just four deliveries when Arafat swung one back between bat and pad, while Geraint Jones, another whose place is under some scrutiny, fared little better, falling seventh ball for 4 as Arafat squeezed through his half-hearted defensive shot.As Trescothick bedded down after lunch, it was left to Ashley Giles to make the running, striking five fours in a brisk 30 before the legspinner Imran Tahir, who played two wicketless matches for Middlesex in 2003, struck with his sixth ball of the innings (98 for 7). Shaun Udal, in his first innings for England in more than a decade, helped balance the books with a composed 14, but it wasn’t until Prior strode to the crease at 130 for 8 that England began to impose their authority.Prior’s innings began a touch streakily, with one top-edged sweep eluding the wicketkeeper, but he has never been a batsmen to stand on ceremony. As the PCB bowlers tired, he and Trescothick began to unfurl some shots of real authority, and it was a measure of the acceleration they produced in the final session that the second fifty of Trescothick’s innings came from a mere 61 balls – the first had taken a laborious 125.Arafat returned to the fray with a beauty to pick up his fourth clean-bowled of the innings, as Prior played down the wrong line, leaving Loudon to accompany Trescothick to the close, with a composed 3 not out from 30 balls. England’s innings had been rescued from ignominy, although not in the most conventional of fashions.

The tenth edition of the Challenger Trophy, the annual tournament contested by three teams made up of the best players in the country, gets underway at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on the February 7. This year, as always, the Challengers offer the intriguing prospect of the country’s top players testing, and in turn being tested by, a whole host of young players keen to make a name for themselves on one of the few domestic stages to command national attention.For this reason, it is all the more unfortunate that this year there is as yet no scheduled telecast of the games, the BCCI having failed to work out either this matter or that of a sponsor. Both the players and cricket fans around the country stand to lose by this, and it is to be hoped that the issue can be sorted out somehow by the time the tournament starts.For several years the Challenger teams were made up of the full Indian side playing two teams made up of fringe players and hopefuls, which did not always lend itself to good contests. But in the last few editions the players from the national side have fanned out over the three teams, and among the potential one-on-one contests in store this year are Zaheer Khan trying to rough up Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag taking strike against Irfan Pathan, and Lakshmipathy Balaji returning after a long layoff due to injury to bowl at players like Rahul Dravid and VVS Laxman. Tyros like Gautam Gambhir and Romesh Powar will get a chance to take a crack at Anil Kumble, and Pathan may be reminded of backyard contests in his childhood if he gets to bowl at his brother Yusuf, who has been picked for India A.This year’s Challengers carry a special significance because the form of the Indian team in the last year has been poor; also, one-day cricket is a young man’s game, and several members of the current side have turned past 30. There is perhaps one batting place up for grabs, or even two, as also a slot for a fast bowler and a wicketkeeper; and good all-round performances will immediately attract attention, not least that of Ganguly.One can discern several categories of prospects from among the players picked. Some stalwarts of Challengers past, like Sridharan Sriram, Dinesh Mongia and Amit Bhandari, will once again showcase their wares and hope that their years will not be held against them; consistent young performers in domestic cricket over the last season and a half like Dheeraj Jadhav, Niraj Patel, and Venugopal Rao will be there; and pleasingly some members of the side that made it to the semi-final of the Under-19 World Cup in Bangladesh last year, like Shikhar Dhawan, Suresh Raina, and Rudra Pratap Singh, will also be on show.Crowd turnouts at the Wankhede should be good, even if Sachin Tendulkar is absent, and in the press box there will be many punts being taken on who among the hopefuls will be wearing the India colours within the next year. But will the TV cameras, and through them the rest of the country, be in attendance? That is a question that the BCCI must attend to in haste.India Senior 1 Sourav Ganguly (capt), 2 MS Dhoni (wk), 3 Yuvraj Singh, 4 Suresh Raina, 5 Venugopal Rao, 6 Niraj Patel, 7 Irfan Pathan, 8 Anil Kumble, 9 Lakshmipathy Balaji, 10 Gagandeep Singh, 11 Rajesh Pawar, 12 Shikhar Dhawan.India A 1 Rahul Dravid (capt), 2 Dinesh Karthik (wk), 3 Satyajit Parab, 4 Dheeraj Jadhav, 5 Mohammad Kaif, 6 Dinesh Mongia, 7 Murali Kartik, 8 Ajit Agarkar, 9 Zaheer Khan, 10 Rudra Pratap Singh, 11 Yusuf Pathan, 12 Robin Uthappa.India B 1 Virender Sehwag (capt), 2 Parthiv Patel (wk), 3 Gautam Gambhir, 4 VVS Laxman, 5 Sridharan Sriram, 6 Rohan Gavaskar, 7 Ramesh Powar, 8 Joginder Sharma, 9 Ashish Nehra, 10 Shib Shankar Paul, 11 Amit Bhandari, 12 Ambati Rayudu.

The Zimbabwe Cricket Union has agreed with the International Cricket Council that it will stop playing Test matches until the end of the year.The announcement follows a meeting between ZCU officials and representatives of the ICC in Dubai earlier today. Besides Ehsan Mani, the ICC’s chairman, the others who met with the ZCU were India’s Jagmohan Dalmiya, Bob Merriman of Australia, and South Africa’s Ray Mali.Zimbabwe only had four Tests scheduled in the remainder of 2004 anyway, two in Pakistan in October and two at home to England in November. Zimbabwe will still be able to play one-day internationals.The wording of the statement implied that the decision to suspend matches came from the ZCU. But their recent utterances suggest that it wouldn’t have agreed to such a move unless it had been placed under some pressure to do so.Nevertheless, Mani said afterwards: “Today’s meeting demonstrates the depth of concern in the international cricket community over the impact the dispute in Zimbabwe is having on the game.” He continued: “The package of measures strikes a balance in protecting the sport in Zimbabwe while ensuring that the issues that arise from the dispute, including the importance of the players to the ZCU and the integrity of the game, are transparently addressed.”This means that the full ICC meeting in London later this month will be a less-fraught affair, but there will still be issues to discuss. Details of today’s meeting also revealed that the officials present from both Zimbabwe and the ICC will recommend further measures at the gathering in London. They included that both the India and South Africa A sides should tour Zimbabwe during July and August, and that India, South Africa and Australia should coach promising Zimbabwean players in their national training schemes.Regarding the national team itself, both parties suggested that Zimbabwe should return to their full Test programme in January, when they are due to play Bangladesh, and that they fulfil both their scheduled one-day series against England and Pakistan this year, as well as take part in the ICC Champions Trophy in England this September.They also discussed the allegations of racism made by the ZCU and the players against each other, with the outcome that the Zimbabwe board has been asked to make a presentation at the meeting on the issue, after fully investigating the claims made by the players.

Greg Chappell, the coach of the Indian team, has sought to deflect criticism of the team’s disappointing performance in the first match of their South African tour, saying the players had been pitted against quality opposition without adequate time to adjust to the local conditions.”It can happen, stepping out of the airplane and playing in two days’ time against genuine quality bowling. But that’s the only way you are going to learn,” Chappell said in a stout defence of his players after the 37-run loss to Rest of South Africa in a warm-up game on Thursday. Chasing a target of 256, the Indians were blown away by the express speed of Dale Steyn, who finished with five for 22 from ten hostile overs.”I don’t know too many players who are well equipped to handle real fast bowling when they first walk on to the international stage. Most of them have to get used to it by experience,” Chappell said.Not only did the batsmen find the going tough, even the bowling came apart in the final overs, with Munaf Patel and Sreesanth both going for more than 60 runs. “We gave a couple of guys an opportunity of bowling in the death overs which they haven’t done before. If you want to get better you have got to have those opportunities,” Chappell said. “Sometimes it is a painful initiation you have to go through. But then you learn the lesson.”Chappell also felt Mahendra Singh Dhoni has now been part of international cricket long enough to take on more responsibility. “He is going to get better if he takes risk and bears responsibility. I think MS is ready for that role. He has played a reasonable amount of international cricket now.”The one Indian batsman who played a long innings was Rahul Dravid, who made 79, and Chappell felt there was a lot that the younger members of the team could learn from him. “Rahul goes through difficult periods. He did what he has to go to get through those periods. You sometimes don’t look very good and you could rather appear uncomfortable. And yet if you go through you gain confidence. It could make it easy next time. It’s not something you can teach somebody. It’s something you learn by experience. Rahul has learnt it as well as anyone has ever learnt it.”Chappell also found words of praise for Anil Kumble and Zaheer Khan, the two bowlers returning to India’s fold. “Zaheer brought his experience to good use and Kumble is the consummate professional. He does everything that needs to be done. He plays with youthful enthusiasm which belies the number of years he has played international cricket.”

Close India 23 for 1 (Patel 13*, Dravid 9*) trail Pakistan 224 (Sami 49, Balaji 4-63) by 201 runs
Scorecard

In a dramatic day’s play, India, after taking charge of the match, let the advantage slip a bit. First, after the bowlers had reduced Pakistan to 137 for 8, a gutsy 49 by Mohammad Sami helped them to a respectable 224. Then, Virender Sehwag was out off the first ball of the innings, though the Indians avoided further loss, ending the day on 23 for 1.Sami’s calm innings might well prove to be of decisive importance when the game is done. The pitch had enough green on it to persuade Sourav Ganguly to bowl first after winning the toss, and his bowlers, after an erratic start, delivered what he expected of them. By the middle of the day, Pakistan were eight down and struggling, but the Indian bowlers appeared to relax a little.A calm Sami and a bumbling Fazl-e-Akbar added 70 runs as the bowlers kept bowling wide to them. Akbar, in particular, looked so much at sea that he appeared likely to get out every time a ball was directed at the stumps. But Ashish Nehra and Irfan Pathan, who had both bowled with accuracy and hostility until then, kept bowling outside off stump – allowing the batsmen to leave the ball – or on Sami’s pads, quite often, which gave him easy runs. Even Akbar freed his arms and got a few lusty slogs away, while Sami benefited when a top-edged skyer off an attempted pull was dropped by Parthiv Patel.Even Anil Kumble was not his usual accurate self to begin with, though he finally did get the breakthrough, trapping Akbar in front for 25 (207 for 9). Sami was run out 17 runs later, trying to steal the sharp single that would have brought him his maiden Test half-century. But 224 was around 80 runs more than India should have conceded, on a pitch that seems unlikely to yield high totals.India began their reply in the worst way possible, as Sehwag played too early at Shoaib Akhtar’s first ball, which flew off the back of his bat to gully, where Yasir Hameed, after juggling the ball twice, held on to a one-handed catch. Rahul Dravid, along with makeshift opener Patel, kept the innings together till the close of play.In the morning, the Indian bowlers, perhaps under pressure after Ganguly’s decision to field, were erratic in the first 45 minutes, with Lakshmipathy Balaji consistently bowling wide of the stumps, unable to control the substantial amount of swing he was getting. Pathan was more accurate, but virtually every ball he bowled in his first spell had the same shape – swinging away from the two left-handed openers. The predictability made him easy to gauge, as Imran Farhat and Taufeeq Umar left a lot of balls outside off, confident that the ball would move in just one direction.Farhat and Taufeeq added 34, but just as they seemed to have settled in, the bowlers struck. First, Balaji trapped Taufeeq lbw for 9 with a ball that pitched on middle and straightened. An over later, Nehra trapped Farhat for 16 in front of the wicket with an inswinger (34 for 2).Hameed and Inzamam-ul-Haq then added 43. Inzamam displayed the same composure as during his Lahore century, solid and judicious in playing and in leaving the ball. Hameed, meanwhile, played some lovely strokes, driving the ball with assurance and a textbook technique. But, as so often in this series, his impetuosity did him in. Pathan, in his second spell, tempted him with a wide ball outside off, which Hameed slashed at, only managing to edge it through to VVS Laxman in the slips (77 for 3). Hameed had made 26, one more start left unconverted.

Nehra then removed Inzamam (15) with a brilliant set-up. First, he rapped him on the pads with a ball that pitched on off and straightened – Hawk-Eye said it was plumb, but David Shepherd disagreed. Nehra was unperturbed. The next ball pitched around the same area, but left Inzamam, who had to play at it, but only edged it behind to Patel (77 for 4).Yousuf Youhana and Asim Kamal now added 33, but they were never comfortable during their partnership. Youhana was troubled by Pathan, who had dismissed him four times in this series before this innings, and survived a few narrow appeals to balls that pitched on the stumps and straightened. Kamal, meanwhile, was a mess: his feet were stuck to the crease, he kept flailing at wide balls outside the off stump, and was lucky to survive long enough to make 21. An inside edge went for four, an outside edge fell short of the slips, and he played and missed time and again.But the Indians, bowling with far more control in the afternoon session than in the morning, stuck to their task, and were rewarded. First, Youhana, on 13, played on to an incoming ball from Pathan (110 for 5). Ten runs later Balaji, back to his metronomically accurate ways, trapped Kamal lbw with one that pitched on middle and straightened, and would have hit middle stump (120 for 6).Sami and Kamran Akmal then added 17, but just as Akmal started counter-attacking, hoisting Balaji over midwicket for four, he was out. An attempt at an expansive drive resulted in a low chance to second slip, and Laxman took a difficult catch with clinical ease (137 for 7). Two balls later Shoaib, who had earlier pontificated that this Test would be over in three days, was bowled by a jaffa from Balaji: a full-length ball that pitched on middle, squared the batsman up, and jagged away to take off stump (137 for 8).It seemed then that India would be batting before tea, and could even take a decisive advantage on the first day itself. But Sami battled feistily, and Pakistan recovered to post a competitive total. India could still count the first day as belonging to them, but Pakistan had done enough to keep the game wide open as a contest.Amit Varma is managing editor of Wisden Cricinfo in India.

Ehsan Mani, the president of the ICC, has lauded New Zealand for undertaking their tour of Pakistan. The team will leave on Wednesday for a revised 12-day tour with five one-day internationals.”They would not be sending a team if they were not reasonably comfortable, but if someone is uncomfortable about going, it would be wrong to make them,” said Mani. “There was a threat made, and New Zealand did the right thing by stepping back and assessing it.”New Zealand were due to play their first match late last week but delayed the tour’s start to assess security measures.Visiting New Zealand with Malcolm Speed, the ICC chief executive, Mani spoke of the new protocol for teams contesting tour programmes. “There was great co-operation between the boards, and the ICC was kept informed. New Zealand has laid the issues out openly and transparently and explained the situation,” he said.New Zealand’s foreign affairs ministry had advised tourists to avoid visiting Pakistan, but Speed said that this did not apply to international teams. He said: “Teams have a significantly higher level of security and it’s quite a different issue. It’s very hard to look at straightforward advice given to tourists where you can apply that to cricket teams and generally we don’t do that.”

Dinanath Ramnarine, a 28-year-old West Indian legspinner, has announced his retirement from first-class cricket. His decision to call it a day comes after his continued exclusion from the national side.Even though he was named on standby for the forthcoming series in South Africa, Ramnarine has decided to stop playing and will now concentrate on his role as president of the West Indies Players’ Association (WIPA).Despite taking 45 wickets in 12 Tests, and being the leading wicket-taker in the recent Red Stripe Bowl tournament, Ramnarine has been left out in the cold since February 2002, his last Test, against Pakistan. In that series, he and Carl Hooper, captain at the time, had an on-field disagreement, and their relationship became worse last year when Ramnarine, in his role as president of the WIPA, changed the system of sharing sponsorship prize money among players from seniority to equality.It was a move Hooper didn’t agree with, but even after Brian Lara replaced Hooper as captain, Ramnarine still couldn’t get back in the team. “I haven’t been chosen for the West Indies for the last two years and I don’t think it was because of my performances on the cricket field,” he said. “I believe the whole Caribbean knew what was taking place but everyone basically allowed it to happen.”He added: “At the end of the day, you have to decide what it is you want to accomplish. I’ve been basically playing cricket, day in, day out, for the past two years and not been able to get a chance.” He also inisisted that it was pointless to continue playing for Trinidad and Tobago with no prospect of playing international cricket. He said, “It’s better someone else has a chance.”Ramnarine made his Test debut against England at Guyana in 1998, and took a best of 5 for 78 against South Africa in Barbados in the 2000-01 series, in which he took 20 wickets. He also played four one-day internationals.

Muttiah Muralitharan has set his sights on further glories, after becoming the third bowler in Test history to reach the 500-wicket mark, on the opening day of the second Test against Australia at Kandy.”To be the third man after Shane Warne and Courtney Walsh to take 500wickets is something special,” said Murali, who was even more pleased to have achieved the feat against the world champions, Australia, and on his home ground at Kandy. “I now want to play until the 2007 World Cup, so I can play another 25 to 30 Tests and can reach 650 wickets.Seventeen wickets fell on the first day, although Murali was adamant the pitch was not to blame. “The 17 wickets did not fall because of the pitch but because of good bowling and bad batting,” he insisted. “It’s evenly poised and whoever holds the pressure will win the game.””It was a lively wicket after the rain and both teams struggled on it,” added John Dyson, Sri Lanka’s coach. “Australia had to decide whether to try to survive or take the attack to the opposition. It was a difficult decision to make. I admire their courage for trying to take the initiative away from the bowlers.”Dyson went on: “The day is even. Neither team did any better than the other. We will have to go out there and play hard cricket now. Even if we do get a lead tomorrow we now have to bowl and bat really well in the second innings.”He was quick to praise his bowlers for their efforts. “It’s a fantastic achievement,” he said of Murali’s landmark. “He’s a great trainer, a great thinker about the game and a great performer. I hope he goes on to take another two or three hundred wickets.”I am really pleased for [Nuwan] Zoysa,” added Dyson. “He bowled tremendously on his return to the team. [Chaminda] Vaas also did a great job, but we expect that from him.”

England v South Africa, 1st Test, Edgbaston, Day 4

This year, the Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack took a deep breath and used a picture on its front cover for the first time in history. It was, as has been widely reported, a huge gamble. But never mind 139 years of tradition and all that – what was really at stake was the here-and-now. By anointing Michael Vaughan as Wisden’s star of 2003, the old yellow book was tempting fate in a truly heinous fashion.Superstitions are an invaluable part of every cricketer’s kitbag, so it would only have been natural if Vaughan had been unable to buy a run all season. Look, for example, at the curse of the Playfair annual – every cricket anorak’s pocket companion – who, year after year, have ruined the seasons of their chosen stars.And sure enough, Vaughan began 2003 with a worrying set of wobbles. Against Zimbabwe, he managed a tortuous 8 from 42 balls at Lord’s, followed by a flashy five-shot 20 at Durham, as if his key attributes of grit and flourish had had a quarrel and taken an innings each. A glut of one-day matches hardly helped his composure at the crease – all too often he was dismissed early, trying to make something out of nothing with un-Vaughanish glides through gully or uncalibrated hoicks over midwicket.But, how different his game appears when there is nothing at stake but the match. Vaughan’s splendid duel with Shaun Pollock, from whom he faced every single delivery of the first hour, encapsulated his performance. For the first time this season, Vaughan was not being expected to live up to the hype that his Ashes series created, merely to ride with that hype.In that first session, Vaughan faced 76 deliveries from Pollock and scored 17 runs. It was the pivotal spell of the day, and, with England an eternity from saving the follow-on, unquestionably the most gripping. But a similar return against Zimbabwe, or in a one-day game, would have been deemed unacceptably slow. Never mind the fact that, for the remainder of his innings, he rattled along at exactly four an over.Despite his success as England’s one-day captain, Vaughan may never be able to convert his prolific Test form into consistency in the limited-overs game. He is too finicky an artist for that. But, give him a blank canvas and all the time in the world to produce a masterpiece, he’ll clatter one off and still leave time to spare.Click here for today’s Bulletin