Kevin Pietersen’s timing was at its best on and off the field in Barbados

Andrew McGlashan at Kensington Oval08-May-2010Kevin Pietersen’s timing was at its best on and off the field in Barbados. He blitzed his way to a 33-ball 53 to set England firmly on course for the World Twenty20 semi-finals then announced he was jetting home for the birth of his first child but hoped to be back for the knockout stage. South Africa must be wishing Pietersen jr had decided to make an appearance a little earlier because they had no answer to his blistering stroke-play.Pietersen learnt that he would be heading home before the match so didn’t quite live up to his word of leaving the tournament at a moment’s notice. However, maybe the news worked in England’s favour because he certainly played with the freedom of a man who was feeling good about life and was noticeably relaxed at the press conference. On Wednesday, following the Pakistan match, he appeared tense. There will be a few air miles in the coming days, but if the team continues this dominant form he could have celebrations on both sides of the Atlantic.It was almost the perfect Twenty20 display from start to finish. Nitpicking would say England should have crossed 180 after the platform laid by Pietersen and Craig Kieswetter as they added 94 in 10 overs, but this pitch was harder to score on than the previous day’s surface. In the end 168 proved more than enough as South Africa’s top order struggled to get the ball off the square.”Colly [Paul Collingwood] and I have been talking about the perfect game and to beat South Africa so convincingly is amazing,” Pietersen said. “It’s so great to be part of a dressing room that plays such good cricket. It’s frustrating for everyone when we don’t perform like we should but, wow, the boys turned up today and the other day.”Pietersen’s personal contribution was a different style from the unbeaten 73 which marshalled the run chase against Pakistan. On that occasion he didn’t come in until the sixth over after an opening stand of 44 between Kieswetter and Michael Lumb, but this time he faced the sixth ball following Johan Botha’s early strike.Instead of already being in a phase of consolidation it was Pietersen’s job to take advantage of the remaining fielding restrictions. He did so, along with Kieswetter, to the extent that after six overs England had 65 for 1, surpassing the 60 for 1 against West Indies as their best start of the tournament. Rarely has an England batting line-up played with such authority in the shortest format. In comparison South Africa’s Powerplay brought 34 for 1.Pietersen could have gone for 12 when he edged between Mark Boucher and Jacques Kallis at slip as his Bangalore Royal Challenger team-mates stood and stared at each other. It wasn’t quite Andre Fletcher and Wavell Hinds against Sri Lanka, but somebody should have at least dived.”Playing against South Africa, Boucher and Kallis missing one through slip, it was good fun,” Pietersen said with the merest hint of a grin. He got the better of another IPL team-mate, too, as he took the attack to Dale Steyn with South Africa’s leading strike bowler going for 50 in his four overs – his worst figures in Twenty20 internationals.Steyn’s first over went for 13 as Pietersen took two boundaries – including a cover drive hit as hard as anything in this tournament – and when Steyn came back for the 11th over it went for 16 with Pietersen dispatching him onto the roof of the Greenidge and Haynes stand. There was an air of redemption for Pietersen after a difficult tour to South Africa in December and January.”You have to go hard in the first six overs. I’ve been playing with Dale for the last four and a half weeks in India and have faced him in the nets so it was quite nice,” he said. “He made me look a clown in South Africa during a few of the Tests so it was nice to get a few back him. It was my day today, it can be his on another.”At the end of the Powerplay Pietersen was on 29 and Kieswetter 24, but in a sign of how Pietersen took charge England’s new wicketkeeper had only advanced to 33 (at a run-a-ball) by the time South Africa made the breakthrough. Despite Kieswetter’s role being to lead the charge on this occasion, it was a moment to stand back and watch.After victory against a disjointed Pakistan team this match was meant to be a proper test of England’s growing Twenty20 credentials but they weren’t even pushed close. It was child’s play. Especially for Pietersen.

South Africa fought back from a difficult start to seal a two-nil victory in the Twenty20 series against West Indies on another scrappy pitch at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua

The Bulletin by Sahil Dutta20-May-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball detailsDwayne Bravo top-scored for West Indies with 40 but lost his wicket at a crucial stage of the chase•AFP

South Africa fought back from a difficult start to seal a two-nil victory in the Twenty20 series against West Indies on another scrappy pitch at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in Antigua.After the wretched encounter in the first game, this tense finish was a welcome change. The pitch wasn’t conducive to the boundary-soaked Twenty20 cricket crowds routinely expect but it provided a low-scoring last-ball finish as South Africa edged home.Once again there were only a smattering of spectators, with the powers that be opting to appease TV schedules around the world and stage the match in the early afternoon, rather than under lights in the evening. Those that did turn up would have been disappointed that the home-side’s batsmen couldn’t follow up a disciplined bowling effort that restricted South Africa to 120, a modest total despite the pitch.With West Indies needing 15 from a dramatic last over, Darren Sammy managed to top-edge the second ball for four and then, extraordinarily, took advantage of loose fielding to collect an all-run four when a single looked sketchy. It left five needed from three deliveries but Ryan McLaren held his nerve to leave West Indies a run short.It should never have reached that stage but West Indies are so reliant on Chris Gayle that his dismissal to a fired-up Dale Seyn in the first over set a negative tone from which they could never quite emerge. Andre Fletcher fell soon after for his ninth single-digit score in 14 matches and Dwayne Bravo and Shivnarine Chanderpaul started very cautiously. Bravo, so often a picture of exuberance, was rendered shotless by some disciplined bowling early on from Morne Morkel and Lonwabo Tsotsobe, who came in for Charl Langeveldt and Roelof van der Merwe.Time and again Bravo picked the infielders and had eight from his first 20 balls. By the half-way stage of the innings Chanderpaul and Bravo had put on 24 from 43 painstaking deliveries and West Indies had a solitary boundary in the innings.McLaren, whose 5 for 19 earned him man of the match in the last game, had to wait until the seventh over for his first ball. Like all the quicks he was encouraged by the pitch immediately as a half-tracker trampolined past Bravo’s face to a leaping de Villiers. By that stage the game looked to be drifting away but Chanderpaul began to pick up the singles and Bravo the odd boundary. Though they were choked by Johan Botha’s impressive offspin, 15 was taken from Tsotsobe in the 14th over to ease the equation to 52 off the last six overs.It proved too much as South Africa fought back immediately. Chanderpaul followed up a well-timed pull for six with a series of failed reverse-sweeps and ended up top-edging a catch behind still looking for the shot. When Bravo then fell two overs later the target looked out of reach.West Indies could have been chasing an even easier total had 20-year-old debutant David Miller not helped his side recover from 59 for 5 in a bright 57-run partnership with Botha. He batted with power and a conviction missing from all the other batsmen on this surface to lift the score to a match-winning total. Miller was only included because of a slight groin injury to Jacques Kallis, but South Africa will be cheered by what they saw of the youngster as they try to rebuild their side after the World Twenty20 disappointment.

Trent Johnston has said that critics who called Ireland a one-generation side were wrong after his team’s victory in the ICC World Cricket League Division 1

Cricinfo staff11-Jul-2010Trent Johnston, Ireland’s stand-in captain, has said that critics who called Ireland a one-generation side were wrong after his team’s unbeaten run to the title in the ICC World Cricket League Division 1 tournament in the Netherlands. Ireland won all five group games, as well as the final against Scotland, despite missing key players such as regular captain William Porterfield, wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien and fast bowler Boyd Rankin, who were playing county cricket in England.”All those people who talk about the wheel turning, or that Irish cricket is a one-generation side, are very much mistaken and will be proven wrong if they look at the performances the kids have put in over the last 10 days,” Johnston said. “It is great to win another trophy that keeps us at the top of Associate level. We had a few speed bumps against Afghanistan in the last 12 months, but it was not (the case) here as we beat Afghanistan pretty convincingly a few days ago with an inexperienced side.”Ireland’s six-wicket victory in the final, however, was achieved after a couple of setbacks. Scotland’s openers, Fraser Watts and Preston Mommsen, began the match with the highest opening stand of the tournament. “I was certainly not happy to see Scotland reach 141-0 after I had sent them in as we didn’t bowl very well at the start. But we persisted and stayed focused which earned us two key wickets,” Johnston said. “A couple of silly shots from their senior players later on got us back in the match and in the end we were left chasing 233 instead of anything in excess of 280.”Ireland’s bowlers fought back strongly and triggered a collapse during which Scotland lost 10 wickets for 91 runs. Ireland also lost three early wickets during the chase of 233 but were guided to victory by Kevin O’Brien and Andrew White, whose 160-run partnership was the highest of the tournament as well as a record in ODIs between the teams.”Kevin has matured as a cricketer and is working very hard on his game,” Johnston said. “We call White a finisher so I was confident that the two would take us home after we were struggling at 51-3. The two were expected to build a partnership and they did exactly that, and though White couldn’t take us over the finish-line, it was an excellent effort by him.”While Scotland were disappointed they couldn’t capitalise on their chances in the final, their captain Gordon Drummond said he would have settled for second place at the start of the tournament.”If you had offered me a second place and four wins out of six matches before the start of the tournament, I would have definitely taken it because we arrived here without a couple of key players and after having finished fifth in South Africa last year,” he said. “We were constantly assessing the situation [in the final] but when we reached 141-0, we were targeting 280 and this is what we should have got at the end. Something that we need to learn is to convert good starts into winning scores and kill off the opposition.”

Mitchell Johnson hit a low point of his career during last year’s Ashes but is now ready to shown what he has learnt

Brydon Coverdale in Birmingham04-Jul-2010This time last year, Mitchell Johnson was approaching his nadir. He was on Australia’s Ashes tour of England; his mother was in the tabloids back home, claiming Johnson had been “stolen” away from her by his fiancée. The stories were picked up in the London press, and it was an ugly episode that distracted Johnson from his role as the team’s spearhead.At Lord’s, he bowled short and wide and was carved up by England’s batsmen, and finished the match with 3 for 200. The crowds around the country got stuck in to him, he couldn’t swing the ball, and nothing went right. Next week, he returns to Lord’s to face Pakistan in a Test, almost a year to the day after he last wore the baggy green there, under nothing like the same intense scrutiny.”Lord’s was my lowest point, performance wise,” Johnson said in Birmingham, where he was preparing for Monday’s Twenty20 against Pakistan. “Even that, I look at the second innings and I started to feel a little better about my bowling. You look at the whole series and I was one of the leading wicket takers, I just wasn’t really at my best.”I’m definitely more relaxed this time. It’s totally different to last time. I don’t feel those pressures. My game, I feel, has improved a lot since last being here. I had that exposure of what it was like to be the new leader of the attack and getting all the media hype and what you were getting from the crowds as well.”On that front, Johnson is right. The Ashes this series is not, so the media hype will not follow him. And when the return contest comes later this year, Johnson will have the local fans behind him. Even so, he feels he has learnt from his last trip to England, and his focus was tested again earlier this year in New Zealand, when he clashed heads with Scott Styris in an ODI in Napier.”In New Zealand I copped a fair bit as well from their crowds, with the incident that happened over there with Scott Styris,” Johnson said. “I copped a fair bit over there after that, but I showed that I can pull my head together and just go out there and play cricket and not let the emotions get to me. I’ve pretty much shown that I have improved.”His focus is one thing, but Johnson must also find a way to master the English conditions. He finished the Ashes tour with 20 wickets at 32.55 – not a bad analysis, but one that flattered him a little. Part of the problem at Lord’s was the unusual slope, which Johnson had been warned about but which caused him all sorts of trouble, while he also found the English surfaces slower and softer under his feet.Against Pakistan at Lord’s and Headingley, Johnson will be Ricky Ponting’s go-to man in a pace attack likely to feature Doug Bollinger and Ben Hilfenhaus. He doesn’t view the series so much as a second chance in England as an opportunity to fine-tune his game, which has improved dramatically since last July – he has taken 41 Test wickets at 25.90 since the start of the Australian summer.”I did find Lord’s quite different, quite a hard place to bowl because of the slope in it,” Johnson said. “It’s something that I was warned about, speaking to past players and [Australia’s bowling coach] Troy Cooley, who has been over here as the England bowling coach. It was a pretty good experience for me.”I haven’t played county cricket before, and it’s always a good experience coming over here and playing on different kinds of wickets. Whether it’s a second chance or not – I’m not looking at it that way. I just want to go out there and do my best again. Hopefully we can start off with these Twenty20s and then work into the Test matches, which I’m really looking forward to.”Monday’s Twenty20 will be Johnson’s first match back after missing the ODI series against England due to an infection in his right elbow. He had a tattoo on the arm ahead of the World Twenty20 and there has been speculation the two could be linked, but Johnson isn’t convinced that his artwork had anything to do with his soreness.”I wouldn’t have thought so,” he said. “I got the tattoo three weeks before I travelled away, so that ruled that out. I got to the West Indies and I felt like I knocked it on the plane, but I’m not 100% sure. It started off as a little bursa, a little sac of fluid, and then progressed from there. We’re not really 100% sure how it came and got infected. At the moment it’s feeling very good.”So is the rest of Johnson. What a difference a year makes.

Martin van Jaarsveld and Geraint Jones rescued Kent with a gritty unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 128 in 36 overs

04-Aug-2010
ScorecardMartin van Jaarsveld and Geraint Jones rescued Kent with a gritty unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 128 in 36 overs after Somerset had threatened to take complete control in the County Championship Division One game at Canterbury.Van Jaarsveld (70 not out) and Jones (47 not out) joined forces when former Kent seamer Ben Phillips reduced the hosts to 47 for 3, still 333 runs adrift of Somerset’s total, shortly before lunch. Neither ever looked totally secure and both were dropped as they steered Kent to a more prosperous 175 for 3 at the close – rain wiping out the last 33 overs.Replying to Somerset’s all-out total of 380, Kent were soon in trouble, Phillips posing consistent problems by swinging the ball on a full length. He broke through in the sixth over when Craig Kieswetter flung himself away to his right to catch a fast-travelling edge from Joe Denly. A nick from Sam Northeast, when he had made only 2, landed just in front of Kieswetter before Northeast hooked Alfonso Thomas for six in an over which cost 15 runs.Phillips won leg-before verdicts against Rob Key and Northeast in successive overs as his excellent opening spell of eight overs yielded figures of 3 for 14. van Jaarsveld and Jones, who added 176 for the fourth wicket against Essex last week, survived until lunch – which was quickly followed by a 15-minute break for rain.They were never fully settled as van Jaarsveld survived a confident leg-before shout against Thomas and Jones was similarly spared when he tried to sweep slow left-armer Murali Kartik. An early tea was taken because of bad light, but van Jaarsveld and Jones found the batting conditions easier until van Jaarsveld, on 39, survived a tough chance away to Kartik’s right at second slip.The century stand and van Jaarsveld’s 115-ball fifty arrived in the same over from Charl Willoughby. Jones was given a life on 47 when Zander de Bruyn could only parry a chance at short extra cover but van Jaarsveld emerged from a sticky patch to on-drive Willoughby for two crisp fours.Somerset were still optimistic of picking up a full quota of batting points at the start of the day, but they had added only three singles to their overnight total of 363 for 7 when Kieswetter edged a full-length outswinger from Azhar Mahmood to Jones behind the stumps.Thomas thumped Mahmood over extra cover but was then smartly caught by Van Jaarsveld away to his right at second slip off Amjad Khan. Willoughby hooked the first ball he faced for four, but in trying a repeat holed out next ball to Malinga Bandara on the square-leg boundary.

Twelve wickets tumbled on a rainy first day of the Intercontinental Cup clash between Ireland and Netherlands in Dublin, the hosts closing the day 100 runs in arrears at 88 for 2

The Bulletin by Liam Brickhill11-Aug-2010Stumps
Scorecard
Twelve wickets tumbled on a rainy first day of the Intercontinental Cup clash between Ireland and Netherlands in Dublin, the hosts closing the day 100 runs in arrears at 88 for 2. George Dockrell starred with the ball on his first-class debut after Netherlands captain Peter Borren opted to bat first, picking up 4 for 36 as the visitors were bowled out for 188.Dockrell was one of four Ireland players to make their first-class debuts in this game and another debutant, seamer Allan Eastwood, was the first to break through for Ireland. He had Eric Szwarczynski caught by captain Trent Johnston in the seventh over, before Johnston himself struck to extract Wilfred Diepeveen for an aggressive 41 and Nick Statham for a far more circumspect 18-ball duck as Netherlands slipped to 84 for 4 immediately after lunch.Ireland’s slow bowlers then took centre stage, Dockrell combining well with yet another first-class debutant, offspinner Albert van der Merwe, to pick up the remaining seven Dutch wickets. Dockrell had started by removing opener Tom de Grooth for a 92-ball 29, and followed up with the wickets of Wesley Barresi, Netherlands first-class debutant Tom Heggelman and, in the same over, No. 11 Mohammad Kashif, all lbw.Netherlands struck back quickly as Paul Stirling was rushed in a cut shot and edged to second slip and Maurits Jonkman trapped James Hall on the crease to reduce the hosts to 17 for 2. But Kevin O’Brien and Alex Cusack weathered the second rainbreak of the day and gained in confidence the longer they were at the crease, adding an unbeaten 71 for the third wicket to take Ireland to a relatively safe position at stumps.

Opening batsman Shahriar Nafees was the only surprise inclusion in Bangladesh’s 14-member squad for the five-match home ODI series against New Zealand

ESPNcricinfo staff13-Sep-2010Opening batsman Shahriar Nafees was the only surprise inclusion in Bangladesh’s 14-member squad for the five-match home ODI series against New Zealand. Left-arm spinner Suhrawadi Shuvo who made his debut in March, before being ignored for the tour to the United Kingdom, also earned a recall to the side.Tamim Iqbal, who is recovering from surgery on his left wrist, was left out for the series. There was no place for Mohammad Ashraful, who has been in and out of the side following a prolonged run of poor form. Seamer Syed Rasel, reserve wicket-keeper Saghir Hossain and left-arm spinner Faisal Hossain were the others to miss out from the squad that toured the UK.Tamim’s absence gives Nafees, who played the last of his 60 ODIs in June 2008, another chance to stake a claim at the top of the order. He has scored 1857 runs in the format, including four centuries and ten half-centuries, at an average of 33.78. He returned to the Test squad for the home series against India, after a stint with the rebel Indian Cricket League.The squad will begin training for the series on September 15 at the Sher-e-Bangla stadium. The five ODIs will be hosted in Mirpur from October 5 to 17.Squad: Mashrafe Mortaza (capt), Shakib Al Hasan (vice-capt), Shahriar Nafees, Imrul Kayes, Junaid Siddique, Raqibul Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mahmudullah, Jahurul Islam, Naeem Islam, Abdur Razzak, Shafiul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Suhrawadi ShuvoOn stand-by: Mohammad Ashraful, Nazimuddin, Nazmul Hossain, Dolar Mahmud, Shuvogoto Hom

The opening match of the three-game India-Australia series was abandoned without a ball being bowled in Kochi

Peter English17-Oct-2010Match abandoned Australia v India

ScorecardThe ground staff couldn’t beat the weather in Kochi•AFP

The opening match of the three-game India-Australia series was abandoned without a ball being bowled in Kochi. Heavy rain before the one-dayer saturated the ground and while the weather was clear at the scheduled start time, the clouds returned to send everyone home.It was an unfortunate result for the thousands of locals who were filling the stadium in their blue shirts. Both teams are fielding inexperienced squads so the expectation was high, but everyone will have to wait for the second match in Visakhapatnam on Wednesday.The Kerala Cricket Association has been criticised by former BCCI secretary SK Nair, who said better arrangements with respect to drainage and scheduling could have been made to prevent an abandonment. “This was not for the first time that an international match was planned in Kochi. In the past, organisers had been able to successfully overcome whatever problems came in the way. This time too, the organisers should have put in place a plan to overcome the hitches,” Nair said.TC Mathew, the KCA secretary, responded saying all possible measures had been taken but heavy rains made it impossible for the match to take place.The series concludes in Goa on Sunday.

A round-up of the tenth day of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Twenty20 tournament

ESPNcricinfo staff24-Oct-2010

North Zone

Medium-pacer Pradeep Sangwan shone with the bat against Haryana, getting Delhi home with a last-ball six•Getty Images

Pradeep Sangwan helped seal a last-ball win against Haryana at the Model Sports Complex with a cameo of 14 off five balls, striking a last-ball six off Joginder Sharma with four required to put Delhi in the knockouts. He came in when Delhi had lost the wicket of Rajat Bhatia, run out for 39, off the first ball of the last over. They needed 12 off five and Sangwan knocked off the runs with a four and then a maximum off the final ball. For Joginder, who snared Misbah-ul-Haq in Johannesburg to hand India the World Twenty20 title in 2007, it was a moment to forget.Earlier, Delhi openers Chetan Sharma and Puneet Bisht had laid a solid platform for the chase of 147, adding 41. Bhatia then supported Sharma in a 36-run stand but Delhi appeared to lose their way when they lost the next four wickets for 25. But Yogesh Nagar revived the innings with a brisk 22 and Sangwan smashed the ball around in the final over to snatch a win. Haryana owed their competitive score to Sunny Singh, who anchored the innings with an unbeaten 74 off 48 balls which, unfortunately for him and his team, proved inadequate as Delhi won their fourth straight game.Services kept their hopes of qualifying for the knockout stage alive with a nervy two-wicket win off the penultimate ball of their game against Punjab at the Model Sports Complex in Delhi. The Services chase of 134 was in tatters at one stage as their top and middle-order batsmen squandered starts to be dismissed and their team collapsed to 69 for 7. Left-arm spinner Bipul Sharma grabbed four wickets but the lower order fought back and how. Ritesh Negi was the star for Services, leading the recovery with 40 off 31 balls and adding 57 with Narendera Singh, who remained unbeaten on 24. Negi fell on the last ball of the penultimate over with the score on 126 but No.10 Suraj Yadav, along with Narendera, knocked off the remaining runs to seal a win with one ball to spare. Services also had to thank medium-pacer Amrinder Singh grabbed his maiden Twenty20 five-for to limit Punjab to a chaseable score, despite opener Sarul Kanwar’s 49.Himachal Pradesh earned their first points of the tournament with a thumping 56-run win over Jammu & Kashmir at the Model Sports Complex in Delhi. Openers Sangram Singh and Manvinder Bisla added 111 in 15.4 overs before Singh was run out for 57. His innings took 51 balls and contained six fours. Bisla was out in the last over, having also made 57, off 53 balls, with three fours and a six.If J&K were to successfully chase 148, they needed to get off to a good start. However, at 15 for 5 in the sixth over, the match was effectively over. Ian Dev Singh and Shashi Kumar made sure J&K played out their full 20 overs with a 52-run partnership, but it was always going to be a bridge too far for a side that has now lost all four of its matches, and gone past 100 just once. Kuldeep Diwan and Ashok Thakur took 2 for 8 and 2 for 9 respectively.

West Zone

Mumbai finished on top of the West Zone points table with an all-win record, prevailing over Maharashtra by 15 runs in their last encounter at the Reliance Stadium in Vadodara. Aditya Tare and Paul Valthaty steadied Mumbai after fast bowler Samad Fallah had them reeling at 7 for 3. The duo added 63 runs before Valthaty was run out for 37. Ankeet Chavan then dominated a 53-run stand with Tare, who anchored the innings with his 47 off 50 deliveries. Chavan’s unbeaten 44 off 31 lifted Mumbai to 147. Maharashtra’s chase was led by Kedar Jadhav who hit three sixes in his 47 off 30. At 103 for 3, Maharashtra needed 45 from 29 with Jadhav at the crease. However, Ajit Agarkar took two wickets in the 16th over, and left-arm spinner Iqbal Abdulla removed Jadhav in the next. The lower order found the going tough, and Maharshtra were bowled out for 132.Baroda eased past Saurashtra at the Reliance Stadium in Vadodara, winning by four wickets with one over to spare. Saurashtra were in trouble early at 27 for 3, before Cheteshwar Pujara and Sheldon Jackson steadied the innings with a 44-run partnership. However, it was slow going for the pair, who took 9.5 overs to score their runs. Pujara led with 37 from 49 balls, but it was left to Rakesh Dhurv to provide a finishing kick. Dhurv hit two fours and three sixes in his unbeaten 33, which came off 15 balls, to take Saurashtra to 113.Baroda lost two quick wickets, but a cameo from Yusuf Pathan – he made 17 from 12 balls, with three fours – and a solid 39 from opener Pinal Shah made sure they were never really in trouble chasing a low score. Ketan Panchal and Abhimanyu Chauhan finished the job, putting on 25 for the seventh wicket, to take Baroda to second place in the West Zone points table, behind Mumbai.

Central Zone

Uttar Pradesh‘s on-off chase ultimately ended in a narrow three-run win for Vidarbha at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Faced with a target of 149, Rohit Srivastava started with a six but fell in the first over. UP then raced to 54 in six overs, courtesy captain Mohammad Kaif’s 41 off 25 deliveries. However, Vidarbha struck with a clutch of wickets as UP subsided to a woeful 109 for 8 in the 17th over. Just when it appeared they were out of the game, RP Singh and Kamran Khan brought them back with a 36-run stand in 21 balls. However, with four runs needed, RP was run out off the penultimate ball of the match. Umesh Yadav bowled Sudeep Tyagi off the last ball as UP lost their third game in four matches. Vidarbha’s total of 148 was built largely around opener Amol Ubarhande’s 72 that came in 59 deliveries.Murtaza Ali’s hurricane half-century set up Madhya Pradesh‘s crushing 66-run win against Rajasthan at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur. Coming in after Monish Mishra and Naman Ojha had got MP off to a quick start, Murtaza built on the momentum, smashing five sixes in his unbeaten 67 that came off 35 deliveries. Despite the fall of some late wickets, his assault lifted MP to 165. Dishant Yagnik began well for Rajasthan, but fast bowler TP Sudhindra’s triple strike in two overs reduced them to 35 for 4. They never recovered after that, and Akash Chopra was the only batsman to make more than 20. All the MP bowlers were among the wickets as Rajasthan were dismissed for 99.

East Zone

Bengal upstaged Orissa by 18 runs at the Sunshine Ground in Cuttack to take the top spot in the East Zone table. Both teams qualified for the knockout stage with wins in their previous games but a collective bowling effort from Bengal helped them make it four in four. The seamers Ashok Dinda and Laxmi Shukla bagged two wickets each while each of the other four bowlers chipped in with a wicket to restrict Orissa in their chase of 133. Things looked upbeat for Orissa when they had raced to 48 for 1 in the sixth over but the middle and lower-order batsmen, while losing their wickets relatively cheaply were also kept quiet and gradually drifted out of contention as the required rate crept up. For Bengal, opener Shreevats Goswami top scored with 43 and added 60 with Anustup Majumdar. Shukla, who starred in an all-round effort, smacked an unbeaten 35, including three sixes, to surge Bengal to 132, a target they defended with ease.Jharkhand slumped to their fourth straight defeat in the competition, losing to Assam by five wickets at the Ravenshaw College Ground in Cuttack. Ishank Jaggi had helped Jharkhand overcome a poor start by top scoring with an unbeaten 61 and steering them to a competitive 138. He was supported in a 57-run stand by captain Rajiv Kumar and later by wicketkeeper Shiv Gautam. In Assam’s response, there were handy contributions from the top and the middle orders, including 46 from Deepak Sharma, who led the chase for the bulk of its duration. Victory was sealed in the final over with four balls to spare, captain Amol Muzumdar remaining unbeaten on 12.

Private investors will be allowed to buy a 33% stake in eight city-based franchises that will form Australia’s Big Bash League in 2011-12

Peter English29-Oct-2010Private investors will be allowed to buy a 33% stake in eight city-based franchises that will form Australia’s Big Bash League in 2011-12. Cricket Australia’s board gave approval for the Twenty20 expansion in Melbourne today and the organisation will own and control the competition.Reports this week said Indian corporations had already bought shares of around A$60m in some of the proposed franchises. However, Cricket Australia believes the value of the teams will rival the biggest sporting clubs in the country. The Brisbane Broncos rugby league team was priced at A$36m this year.James Sutherland, the Cricket Australia chief executive, said private investment would be allowed from minority stakeholders, but the individual teams would be owned by the state associations. “The board has taken a position that it will be less than 49% [minority share], probably more likely to be 33%,” Sutherland said.”We’re very excited and optimistic of the existing interest in these teams and the Big Bash League. Some of the valuations we have done recently put these teams immediately into the upper echelons of Australian sport in terms of value in sporting teams.”The idea is unashamedly based on the India Premier League, but Cricket Australia is determined not to make the same mistakes over ownership that have plagued the competition this year. Two franchises, Rajasthan Royals and Kings XI Punjab, have been struck out following broken agreements, while Kochi, one of the expansion teams, is on the verge of being dumped due to issues with investors.When asked whether fit and proper testing of owners would occur, like what happens in the English Premier League, Sutherland said, “Under the licensing agreement, which each of the states and teams will be bound by, there will be a process of Cricket Australia maintaining the rights to vet or approve any investors in any of these teams.”Sutherland said there was a lot to be learned from the IPL. “I mean that in a positive and negative sense,” he said. “There is a model there that exists that has been incredibly successful.”It’s important to reflect that part of the reason this competition is already attracting investors here and abroad is the fact that it is extremely high profile, by virtue of Big Bash teams having qualified for the Champions League, and been very successful. It’s also because the game of Twenty20 is popular around the world, and it’s a unique opportunity for cricket.”An IPL-style auction is not an option to distribute the playing talent but there will be a strict salary cap and a draft will be considered. There are hopes for a January window to ensure Australia’s international players and big-name overseas stars are available for the entire tournament, but that will not happen at least until the current TV rights deals run out in 2012-13.”We see great merit in having Australian players playing in this competition but obviously that needs to be balanced with our commitments to international cricket,” Sutherland said. “We want Twenty20 to complement, not compromise, international cricket. Finding that balance is important.”Six of the sides will come from the cities that already host domestic cricket, but the state concept will be abolished for the Twenty20 tournament. Expressions of interest will be taken from other areas of the country over the next couple of months and a decision on the final two teams will be made in February. The inaugural tournament will be held in December and January 2011-12.Crowd numbers for the Big Bash, which started in 2005-06, increased by 80% last year to average more than 18,000 per game. Cricket Australia was initially reluctant to join the Twenty20 revolution when it began in England, but quickly swung behind it when realising how popular and lucrative it could be.Cricket Australia has done modelling 20 years into the future and Sutherland is convinced the tournament will be a massive success. “It gives us a huge amount of confidence in how this competition is going to grow,” he said. “In the first couple of years, the cash flows are somewhat handicapped by existing media rights deals, so the marginal revenues may not be quite as large, but we would expect those to kick in from year three and beyond.”While there are expectations the other two domestic competitions will be cut back, Sutherland said the Boxing Day Test was “safe”. “From an international programming point of view, our priority rests with international cricket,” he said. “But all of the research we have done very strongly indicates that the enjoyment that people get from the game of cricket can be spread over the three formats, or discreetly held with one format of the game.”